[mou] Spruce Rd/Lake Co. news

[Michael Hendrickson]

Hello:

Saw this news article online and thought I share it.  Spruce Road off Highway 1 in northern Lake County has a bit of history with most birders since this road was once a fairly dependable road to find black-backed and three-toed woodpeckers. Also there are a few gray jays that will feed out of your hand plus its a good spot for finding boreal chickadees.

For those that have been up there in recent years there has been some major drilling for minerals off the road and in fact there are two new roads that lead off the spruce road to these drilling sites.  Here's an update to the drilling and what they are finding.

Company says Range metals deposits could be world's third-largest
Duluth News Tribune
Published Wednesday, December 12, 2007

A Franconia Minerals Corp. drilling program at Birch Lake near Babbitt has revealed what's believed to be the world's third-largest unexploited copper-nickel and platinum group resource, according to company officials. 
Test results from a series of drill holes have further defined the thickness and grade of copper, nickel, and platinum group mineralization in northern and western portions of the deposit, according to Franconia Minerals news release.
Estimates are that deposits in the area contain 307 million tons of inferred mineral resources, including 100.4 million tons at Birch Lake, 83 million tons at Franconia's nearby Maturi deposit, and 124.4 million tons at its Spruce Road resource.
An inferred mineral resource is a deposit for which geological evidence and limited sampling supports certain character-istics.
A preliminary economic assessment shows that the company's Birch Lake and Maturi deposits near Babbitt over a 26-year mine life, could each year produce 74 million pounds of copper, 19 million pounds of nickel, 2.9 million pounds of cobalt, 68,000 ounces of palladium, 33,000 ounces of platinum, and 7,400 ounces of gold.
Franconia Minerals, of Spokane, Wash., is seeking to develop a copper-nickel and platinum group metals mine and proc-essing facility at the site.
About 83 percent of an 18-hole, 63,000-foot drilling program at Birch Lake is complete along with about 60 percent of the drill hole results, according to the company.
Exploratory drilling at Birch Lake is expected to be complete in January, according to Brian Gavin, Franconia president and CEO.
Two drill rigs would then move to the Maturi property, where the company has received U.S. Forest Service approval to drill.

 
Mike Hendrickson
Duluth, Minnesota
Website: http://webpages.charter.net/mmhendrickson/
Blog: http://colderbythelakebirding.blogspot.com/


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