BACKGROUNDER

The Voisey’s Bay Deposit

Geological Setting

The Voisey’s Bay deposit is a nickel-copper-cobalt deposit located approximately 35 kilometres southwest of Nain in northern Labrador. It was formed about 1.3 billion years ago and is contained within igneous rocks typical of those that host major nickel deposits elsewhere in the world.

The Deposit

The Voisey’s Bay deposit consists of a series of individual nickel-copper-cobalt deposits that are known as the Reid Brook, Discovery Hill, Ovoid and Eastern Deeps. The Ovoid is close to the surface beneath 2.5 to 30 metres of overburden. The other deposits are deeper and plunge to the east-southeast at about 20 degrees. Their depth varies between 100 and 1,000 metres below surface .

The only deposit that has had sufficient exploration work done to be regarded as a proven resource is the Ovoid. This is a bowl-shaped deposit that measures 950 by 500 metres across, and is over 100 metres deep at the centre. It contains proven reserves of 31.7 million tonnes of ore, 2.83 per cent of which is nickel, 1.68 per cent copper and 0.12 per cent cobalt. It is the only deposit that can be developed by surface open-pit mining techniques.

The other deposits contain a total of 118 million tonnes of indicated and inferred resources, however, further exploration work (including underground work) will be required to determine how much of these resources can be mined. Most will have to be developed using underground mining techniques.

All mineralization consists of nickel sulphide (pentlandite), which also contains the cobalt, copper-iron sulphide (chalcopyrite) and iron sulphide (pyrrhotite). The style of mineralization varies from massive (i.e. over 90 per cent sulphide minerals) to disseminated (i.e. the sulphides are mixed with other minerals).