by Greg Klein | June 12, 2017
High-grade Silver distracted previous operators of Ontario’s Castle mine from high-grade cobalt and nickel, says the current project operator. Among the evidence are initial chip sample results from an underground program at Castle Silver Resources’ (TSXV:CSR) property, about 80 kilometres northwest of the historic Cobalt camp. The first five samples averaged 1.06% cobalt, 5.3% nickel and 17.5 g/t silver, with the three best assays showing:
- 1.8% cobalt, 8.6% nickel and 25.2 g/t silver
- 1.6% cobalt, 7.6% nickel and 32 g/t silver
- 0.81% cobalt, 5.9% nickel and 4.1 g/t silver
Pinkish alteration reveals cobalt mineralization
just inside an adit at the former Castle silver mine.
The samples were selective “and should not be considered representative of the mineralization hosted within the target area,” the company pointed out. The samples were composites taken from a 200-kilogram bulk sample extracted a short distance inside the adit.
As reported last week, the remainder will go through the company’s proprietary Re-2OX hydrometallurgical process to produce cobalt powder samples for battery manufacturers.
Castle Silver has also been testing Re-2OX for its recycling potential in recovering lithium-cobalt from Li-ion batteries. The process “is designed for high recovery of multiple metals and elements, opening opportunities that simply didn’t exist decades ago at this mine or throughout the northern Ontario silver-cobalt district,” said president/CEO Frank Basa.
The 3,252-hectare project’s former mine consists of “11 levels covering a footprint 727 metres east-west, 455 metres north-south and 258 metres deep,” he added.
Lying under much of the property is the 300‐metre-thick Nipissing diabase intrusive, which Castle Silver interprets as a potential heat source “that mobilized various metals—notably, of course, silver intimately associated with cobalt, but also gold, copper, zinc and nickel.”
Underground bulk sampling continues as the company also builds a 3D model from historic data.
With an oversubscribed second tranche that closed last month, Castle Silver has so far raised a total of $966,500 from a private placement offer that’s been increased to $1.2 million.
Castle Silver also holds a 100% option on the Beaver and Violet cobalt-silver properties hosting former mines near the town of Cobalt, 80 kilometres southeast.
Read about cobalt supply and demand.
