Little Sheep Brook is a 700-ha property located approximately 11 km east of St. George’s, western Newfoundland. The property is accessed from a gravel road off the Trans-Canada Highway, 2.5 km to the west. There are two historic mineral occurrences on the property – the Lower Sheep Brook Cu-Ni-Co-Pb-Zn-Pt-Pd and the Road Pt-Pd-Ni-Cu-Zn showings. Between 1999 and 2006, exploration work was limited to minor prospecting, grab and soil sampling focused these two areas.
Grab samples from Lower Sheep Brook returned assays of up to 1.48 g/t Pt (platinum), 1.08 g/t Pd (palladium), 1.17% Ni (nickel) and 0.10% Co (cobalt). The LSB Showing, best exposed in the Sheep Brook stream bed, consists of two thin (5 – 8 cm wide by 1 – 1.5 m) long lenses of massive sulphide bounded by strongly sheared anorthosite. Four short (up to 1.8m long) core samples were drilled into the Sheep Brook lens. Sampling from one hole yielded 709 ppb Pt + Pd, 0.3% Cu, .03% Co and up to 2.7% Ni over 95 cm. Grab samples collected by Marathon in 2007 from the LSB showing returned assays of up to 2.72 g/t Pt, 4.3 g/t Pd, 17.7% Cu, 0.15% Co, 1.88% Ni, 2.88% Pb and 2.58% Zn.
The Road Showing, located 3.5km to the east of the Little Sheep Brook Showing, consists of a 40 cm wide zone of massive pyrrhotite, pyrite and minor chalcopyrite and sphalerite hosted by altered, deformed anorthosite. Grab samples yielded up to 2.72 g/t Pt, 4.3 g/t Pd, 0.15% Co, 1.88% Ni, 2.88% Pb and 2.58% Zn.
Source: Sheep Brook Marathon PGM Assessment File NFLD/3137.
