Voisey’s Bay and other deposits, Labrador, Canada

In the summer of 1993, two prospectors, Albert Chislett and Chris Verbiski, who had been sent to Labrador by Diamond Fields Resources Ltd. to conduct stream sampling for diamond indicator minerals, discovered a gossan with the blue staining characteristic of copper on a hill-top, 45 km southwest of the village of Nain. An initial 5-hole drill programme was conducted to investigate the occurrence in October 1994 and one of the holes intersected a 41.2 m zone of semi-massive to massive sulfide grading 2.96% Ni, 1.89% Cu and 0.16% Co within a wider 71.0 m zone which graded 2.23% Ni, 1.47% Cu and 0.12% Co. A major drilling program was started by Diamond Fields Resources Ltd in January 1995 and by July 1995, 31.7 million tonnes of ore grading 2.83% Ni, 1.68% Cu and 0.12% Co had been outlined at surface in the area known as the “Ovoid” and “Mini-Ovoid”. In October 1995 a second major discovery, known as the “Eastern Deeps”, was made during a stratigraphic drilling program. The deposit was acquired by INCO Ltd in August 1996. Current reserves plus inferred and indicated resources stand at 136.7×106 tonnes grading 1.59 wt% Ni, 0.85 wt% Cu, 0.06 wt% Co. The success at Voisey’s Bay led to a huge surge in exploration in this part of Labrador in 1995, 1996 and to a lesser extent in 1997. Many Ni-bearing occurrences were located and explored, and some of these are discussed in the closing sections of this chapter.