Exploration and development company Magna Mining has signed a toll milling agreement with Glencore Canada for the surface bulk sample of the 109 Footwall (FW) zone at its Crean Hill project, in Sudbury, Ontario.

This development, CEO Jason Jessup says, is the next step of advancing the Crean Hill project – a past-producing nickel, copper and platinum group metals (PGM) mine.

“This is yet another example of how we can work with the local major mining companies to advance our projects,” he adds.

In March, Magna signed a definitive offtake agreement for advanced exploration at Crean Hill with Vale Canada. The Vale agreement excluded the 109 FW zone as Magna wanted to explore other processing options to improve recoveries for the copper/PGM-rich mineralisation in the zone.

Magna will ship about 20 000 t of mineralised rock from the near-surface portion of the 109 FW zone to Glencore, which will process the ore at the Strathcona mill and produce a bulk concentrate. This will provide information on base and precious metal recoveries, enabling Magna to better plan underground advanced exploration and future commercial production. 

Recently, a series of short diamond drill holes were completed in the area of the surface bulk sample, and on May 8, Magna reported assay results from the first eight holes of this programme. These results included hole MCB-24-029 which intersected 2.9% copper, 0.9% nickel and 9.5 g/t platinum, palladium and gold over 6.3 m starting at surface.

The drilling will be incorporated into the surface bulk sample design, as well as additional drilling for which assays are pending.

Magna plans on awarding the contract for the surface bulk sample work in the coming days and intends to have contractors mobilise to site in June. It is estimated that the surface work will take four to six weeks and the toll milling will be completed in third quarter 2024.