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Profile

Starfield Resources Inc. (Starfield) is currently exploring a mineral deposit containing significant quantities of palladium, platinum, nickel, copper and cobalt on its property at Ferguson Lake in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut Territory, Canada. The property is 240 km west of Rankin Inlet, 160 km south-southwest of Baker Lake and 765 km north of Thompson, Manitoba.

The property was initially discovered by Canadian Nickel Company Ltd. (now Inco Ltd.) in 1950 and was held in its mineral inventory for over 40 years. Exploration in 1953 defined a major copper-nickel resource, but did not recognise the palladium, platinum and cobalt resources. In 1987, the Homestake Mineral Development Company explored the property for those three metals and found significant quantities. In 1998, the property was acquired by Starfield, which confirmed the value of those metals and continued to explore and define the resource.

Overview

Streams in the Ferguson Lake area are shallow due to a permafrost barrier lying sometimes just a few centimetres beneath the surface. Increasing discharge results in a widening of a stream rather than a deepening. Pools are rare and only occur where the permafrost barrier is locally deep. Lakes in the vicinity of Ferguson Lake typically consist of a deep central basin with a substrate of silt surrounded by a narrow ring of shallow, sunlit littoral habitat with a substrate that ranges from silt to boulders. Ferguson Lake water is clear, and has low concentrations of nutrients and most metals (Rescan 2003).

Experience

The objective of the Ferguson Lake area baseline water sampling program is to provide pre-development water quality data from the area where exploration efforts are focused. Specific locations downstream of potential future activity were also sampled to start a baseline data set on water quality exiting the property.