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The Julie Nickel-Copper-Cobalt-PGE Project is about 150km kilometers northwest of Baie-Comeau and along the north shore of the mining-friendly province of Quebec, Canada and covers approximately 3,047 hectares. The project is ideally situated in close proximity to the deep-seaport town of Baie-Comeau and accessible via gravel and logging roads. Once the flagship property of St Georges Eco Mining, this asset will now play an integral role in supporting the development of the proposed battery recycling plant in Baie-Comeau.
Historical Exploration
Franconi et al. (RG162, RG163 and DPV127) carried out the first mapping program of this area at a 1:250,000 scale between 1968 and 1970. Around the same time, the Geological Survey of Canada produced the first airborne magnetic maps of the Lac Mapret and Lac Matamec region which encompassed the Julie Property.
Julie saw its first real exploration in 1976 after SOQUEM carried out a significant exploration campaign of 34,700 km2, which included Lake Sediment geochemistry, airborne radiometrics and a geological survey. Pieces of the report were published in 1984, 86 and 87 through the MRNFQ. However it wasn’t until 1996 that the initial discovery of Nickel and Copper at Julie was made.
Then In 1998, Outokumpu Mines Inc. performed a Helicopter Mag and Electromag surveys covering 2,519 line kilometers as well as ground geophysical surveys and geological mapping of the Lac Blanche and Julie Properties. As part of this exploration campaign the company highlighted a dyke or sill that contained up to 1.51% Ni and 0.31% Cu.
In 2000, the FREM and Bourque Brothers prospected the Lac La Blache Ni-Cu occurrence. They undertook line-cutting (9 lines for 600 metres total length at 100 metre spacing) for Beep-mat prospecting and a electro-magnetic VLF survey. Some 21 samples were collected in 5 trenches with a highlight of 1.33 % Ni and 0.28 % Cu over 2 metres.
In 2000, the Centre associé en transfert de technologie en foresterie du Cégep de Baie-Comeau (“CERFO”) assisted local prospectors (GM59562, GM59574 and GM59575) in the area of Lac La Blache for Beep-mat prospecting. They discovered the Hélène occurrence of a small massive sulphide composed of 95 % pyrrhotite and 5 % chalcopyrite and up to 0.71% Cu et 0.25 % Ni located more than 4 km southwest of the Julie occurrence.
In 2001, the Couturier family undertook prospecting in order to find extension of the Hélène occurrence which consisting of soil sampling and a VLF geophysical survey.
Between 2002 and 2004, Gemme Manicouagan inc., completed geological mapping, outcrop stripping, and tried to quarry rock.
The Julie Nickel project was acquired privately by St. Georges in 2007.
During February and March of 2011, Geophysics GPR International Inc. flew a high sensitivity airborne magnetic geophysical survey commissioned by NORAM Engineering and Mining Corp. on behalf of St-Georges Platinum & Base Metals ltd. The survey was composed of one (1) block for a minimum of 3735 line-km coverage.
In 2014, the company announced that they identified a 1.5 km corridor of sulphide impregnated rock that was mapped at surface. Mineralization occurs intermittently over a 1.5 km strike length by 200 meters wide and several large sulphide rich outcrops were identified. One channel sample returned grades of 11.64 meters grading 1.82% nickel, 0.29% copper and 0.04% cobalt.
St-Georges completed a total of 9 surface test holes in 2019 on the Julie Nickel Project. These holes were completed using a hammer drill (DTH) and extending to average depth of 21 meters, all within proximity to historical trenches identified in previous exploration campaigns.
The material collected was in the form of fine rock chips and dust and bagged in accordance with regulatory standards. The material was then transported to the lab for metallurgical test work. The contents in each bag ware spread over a small grid, and multiple readings were taken with a handheld XRF Analyzer Spectrometer conducting X-Ray Diffraction Elemental Analysis. When the content of the bags returned readings in excess of 1% nickel, the entire bag’s content was fed into a rippler device to mix the material in order to generate two representative samples that will be sent to an independent laboratory for analysis. The Company’s geological team intends to use this data to help identify and understand the relationship and potential for targeting these different mineralized areas within the project area.
Julie Nickel Metallurgical Processing
In 2019-20, the company’s geological team collected over 100 kg of material from Julie’s trench #1 location to conduct a small bulk processing program. Characterization and metallurgical testing were conducted, as well as tests with St-Georges’ developmental green nickel processing initiative. Initial metallurgy for the material encountered had a primary focus on nickel and copper. With additional optimization of the recovery process of the by-products identified, such as sulfur, we could potentially provide sulfuric acid to third-party industrial projects being developed on the Québec North-Shore. The Company expects to present its findings to the Québec government’s Northern Plan Agency as a portion of the work completed falls within the research initiative for which the Company received a governmental grant.
The metallurgical work is conducted with Co;alia at their installations under the supervision of St-Georges’ VP of Exploration, Mr. Enrico Di Cesare. Shareholders are cautioned that the data obtained comes from the bulk samples, which were chosen for their known content in nickel and copper within trench #1 and it is too early in the project’s exploration and development to know if these results could be considered representative of the project’s general metallurgy.
The nickel found in the historical and recent assays seems to be located almost exclusively in the pentlandite found in the system. The recrystallized nature of the pentlandite on Julie seems to indicate an easy crystal to recover with flotation, and the early microscopic evaluation indicates it should not be difficult to process the nickel out of it. This crystal chemistry is (NiFe)9S8. This type of nickel has the ideal ratio of 1 to 1 for nickel to iron which helps reduce chemical costs lost to the iron. This type of nickel can also complement ferro nickel projects, including the BCM Foundry Project being proposed on the North-Shore. Over the next few months, the Company will conduct trials for ferro alloys and will optimize total recovery of experimentation.
The recrystallized copper-bearing chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is expected to be a candidate for recovery by flotation, making it a potentially important credit to any proposed industrial processing operation. St George intends to evaluate different options to optimize the value of the by products including Cobalt, which will be focused on in later stages as Cobalt is commonly used in lithium ion batteries and could be a potential stock feed for the battery recycling plant in Baie-Comeau, Québec which was proposed by Innovation & Dévelopment Manicouagan in partnership with EVSX, where the company is hoping to start its EV battery recycling operations in 2021.
2021 Exploration Campaign
In 2021, the Company will be undertaking an exploration program which will consist of a detailed surface exploration campaign which will include some geophysics. Followed by deep hole DDH drilling before doing down hole geophysics in order to help guide a more detailed drilling campaign.
Information within this document was sourced from;
www.mrnfp.gouv.qc.ca/mines/index.jsp
https://sigeom.mines.gouv.qc.ca/signet/classes/I1108_afchCarteIntr
https://backend.otcmarkets.com/otcapi/company/research/66939/content
