FPX Nickel drills 0.127% DTR nickel 426.9 metres at Decar, British Columbia
FPX Nickel Corp. [FPX-TSXV; FPOCF-OTCQB] reported additional drill results further confirming the significant lateral extension of the new nickel discovery at the Van target in the company’s Decar nickel district in central British Columbia.
These drill results expand nickel mineralization approximately 1 km west of previous drilling, bringing the mineralized footprint at Van to approximately 2 km in strike length by 1 km in width. Based on the first two drilling campaigns completed to-date, the scale of nickel mineralization at Van is trending toward being comparable with the Baptiste deposit, which has a strike length of approximately 3 km with an average width of approximately 1 km.
Drilling at Van has outlined strong nickel mineralization over a large footprint measuring approximately two square km, with mineralization open both laterally and at depth;
The final set of Van drill holes reported here (22VAN-013 to 22VAN-019) extend nickel mineralization by approximately 1 km west from previously reported holes. New drill hole 22VAN-016 intersected 426.9 metres grading 0.127% DTR (Davis tube recoverable) nickel (Ni) (0.204% total nickel), starting at an approximate vertical depth of 9 metres below surface.
The highest grades to-date at Van are in the southwest portion of the target area, where future stepout drilling is planned to test the further lateral and depth extension of mineralization.
“On the basis of the first two modestly-sized drill campaigns, the Van discovery has quickly achieved an extensive footprint of broad and higher-grade near-surface nickel mineralization, confirming the potential of the Decar Nickel District to host multiple large-scale deposits,” commented Martin Turenne, president and CEO. “Van remains open for expansion in multiple directions, most favourably to the south, southwest, and west, where the encouraging trend of higher-grade nickel in outcrop and drill results to-date suggest the potential for a significant extension of the already sizeable 2 km2 mineralized footprint. While FPX is primarily focused the completion of a Baptiste preliminary feasibility study in the third quarter of 2023, we look forward to future drilling at Van to confirm our hypothesis that Van could ultimately host a significant near-surface nickel resource to complement the neighbouring Baptiste deposit.”
The results described here are from a ten-hole, 2,504-metre drill program completed in 2022 at the Van Target, which is located 6 km north of Baptiste at a similar elevation, and also accessible via active logging roads. This drill program was designed to follow up on the inaugural drilling in 2021, stepping out aggressively from the initial discovery area to define the extent of mineralization up to 1 km south and 1.5 km west of the holes drilled in 2021. The results of the first three holes from the 2022 program (22VAN-010 to 22 VAN-012) were previously reported in the December 12, 2022 news release.
The nickel mineralization at the Van target, as defined by just 19 holes drilled in 2021 and 2022, is approaching the scale of the Baptiste deposit, which measures 3 km along strike with an approximate width of 1 km. Mineralization at the Van target remains open along strike to the west, southwest, and south, and at depth, confirming the potential for Van to host a large-scale, standalone nickel deposit.
Drill hole 22VAN-013 returned 202.3 metres of 0.019% DTR nickel or total nickel of 0.151% nickel. 22VAN-014 returned 313.8 metres of 0.038% DTR nickel or 0.187% total nickel, including 141.7 metres of 0.056% DTR nickel or 0.212% total nickel. 22VAN-015 returned 277.0 metres of 0.079% DTR nickel or 0.187% total nickel, including 164.8 metres of 0.089% DTR nickel or 0.192% total nickel and 112.2 metres of 0.064% DTR nickel or 0.179% total nickel. Refer to original press release for complete drill results.
Decar hosts a greenfield discovery of nickel mineralization in the form of a naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy called awaruite (Ni3Fe), which is amenable to bulk-tonnage, open-pit mining. Awaruite mineralization has been identified in four target areas within this ophiolite complex, being the Baptiste Deposit, and the B, Sid and Van targets, as confirmed by drilling, petrographic examination, electron probe analyses and outcrop sampling on all four targets. Since 2010, approximately US $28 million has been spent on the exploration and development of Decar.