Nunavut’s Roche Bay deposit contains “very” high-grade iron

Representatives from the Chinese company, XinXing Pipes Group, visited Roche Bay where they looked at its collection of drill cores on site as part of their brokering of a partnership with Advanced Explorations Inc. to fast-track the development of an iron mine there. (PHOTO/ ADVANCED EXPLORATIONS)

The good news from exploration companies looking to satisfy the developing world’s hunger with iron ore from Nunavut and Nunavik keeps on coming: Advanced Explorations Inc. announced July 26 that iron ore from the east coast of its property on Nunavut’s Melville Peninsula contains a much higher-grade ore than originally determined.

The preliminary results from this year’s testing show “a very high quality, high grade iron concentrate product,” of up to 70 per cent iron, which could be directly shipped out, without processing.

“These findings continue to support our growth objective by adding value and unlocking the potential of the Melville Peninsula,” said John Gingerich, president and chief executive officer of Advanced Explorations, said in a company news release.

The company’s property is located 60 kilometres southwest of Hall Beach and close to the coast at Roche Bay.

The property contains at least 467 million tonnes of iron ore spread over 140 km, and, based on the new test results, Advanced Explorations said it plans to review its overall business strategy for the Roche Bay project.

The high quality of the ore provides “additional potential flexibility to advance the project and to add value to all stages of its development,” said the company’s news release.

The area where the high-grade iron ore comes more is “very favorably located,” within four km of the mine’s potential port facilities and infrastructure, it said.

Last year, a Chinese company, XinXing Ductile Iron Pipes, one of the world’s largest producers of cast iron pipe, announced it would spend as much as $1 billion to fast-track a Roche Bay iron mine into production.

The increasing attention to Nunavut’s rich iron resources comes as no surprise to Patricia Mohr, an economist and commodity specialist with the Scotiabank.

At the Nunavut Mining Symposium held last April, keynote speaker Mohr predicted the desire for the territory’s resources and the influx of mining companies would continue.

A “tsumami” of money is now flowing from China, which wants to build more houses, cars railway and ports and needs iron, nickel, zinc, copper to keep its mills busy, she said.

This map shows the location of the Roche Bay project on Nunavut’s Melville Island. (PHOTO/ADVANCED EXPLORATIONS)