Archer Exploration drills 1.19% nickel over 8.2 metres at Grasset, Quebec
Archer Exploration Corp. [CSE-RCHR; OTCQB-RCHRF; FSE-6YR0] released the results of its 2024 winter exploration program at the 100%-owned Grasset nickel project in the Abitibi greenstone belt of Quebec, Canada.
Highlights: Drill hole GR24-10A intersected the newly discovered H1X zone at 400 metres below surface: 2.67% nickel (Ni), 0.44% copper (Cu) and 2.32 g/t platinum-palladium (Pt-Pd) over 2.90 metres, including 4.08% Ni, 0.98% Cu and 4.57 g/t Pt-Pd over 0.85 metres within a larger zone grading 1.19% Ni, 0.17% Cu and 0.99 g/t Pt-Pd over 8.20 metres.
The H1X Discovery zone, discovered in 2023, is a high-grade southeastern extension of the H1 zone, as seen by: GR23-03: 1.55% Ni, 0.18% Cu and 1.2 g/t Pt-Pd over 5.80 metres. GR23-07: 2.97% Ni, 0.10% Cu and 4.1 g/t Pt-Pd over 0.44 metres. GR23-08: 1.06% Ni, 0.14% Cu and 0.7 g/t Pt-Pd over 5.60 metres.
“Today’s assay results further reinforce our confidence in the presence of a robust mineralizing system that we can’t fully appreciate yet,” said Tom Meyer, President and CEO. “As our technical team persists in exploring and defining the boundaries of the Grasset Deposit, we remain highly encouraged from the successes of our fall and winter drilling campaigns. We are particularly enthusiastic about future drilling as we focus on the H1X Discovery Zone at depth and towards the southeast, an area devoid of any historical drilling or exploration along the Sunday Lake Fault.”
The 2024 Winter Program consisted of three diamond drill holes totaling 1,323 metres of drilling. The primary objective of the program was to test the new geophysical anomaly, N9, approximately 2 km northeast of the Grasset Deposit and to further explore the high-grade H1X Discovery Zone.
Holes GR23-07 and GR23-08, drilled in December 2023, confirmed the extension of mineralization in the H1X Zone to a depth of approximately 430 metres, approximately 100 metres below the discovery hole, GR23-03, which intersected 0.30 metres of massive sulphides at a depth of 330 metres. Hole GR24-10A intersected the H1X Zone 50 metres above and 50 metres southeast of hole GR23-08. The mineralized zone is located on the northern contact at the bottom of the main ultramafic sequence.
Hole GR24-10A intersected 2.67% Ni, 0.44% Cu, 2.32 g/t Pt-Pd over 2.90 metres, including a subinterval of 4.08% Ni, 0.98% Cu, 4.57 g/t Pt-Pd over 0.85 metres within a broader zone grading 1.19% Ni, 0.17% Cu, 0.99 g/t Pt-Pd over 8.20 metres.
Hole GR24-11 was targeting the up-dip extension of the trend defined through the intersections of holes GR23-08 and GR23-03. Unfortunately, due to strong deviation, the hole interested the H1 Horizon 50 metres west of the target and intersected 0.41% Ni over 0.70 metres.
Holes GR23-03, GR23-08 and GR24-10A, which now define the newly discovered H1X Zone, clearly demonstrate the presence of a strong mineralizing system that remains open in all directions below 250 metres in the southeast portion of the H1 Horizon.
Grades and textures, observed at the bottom of the main ultramafic package, indicate the potential for recent intersections to be at the fringe of a new high-grade-hosting ultramafic conduit. All four drill holes in the H1X Discovery Zone intersected nickel grades higher than the Indicated Resources average grade of the H1 Horizon of 0.82%.
Michael Konnert has resigned as a director of the company, effective immediately.
In 2021, an updated mineral resource estimate, using a 2016 drilling cutoff, was completed with an Indicated Mineral Resource Estimate of 5.5 Mt grading 1.53% nickel equivalent (NiEq) and an Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 217,000 tonnes grading 1.01% NiEq.
The vast majority of the Grasset Ultramafic Complex is underexplored and limited exploration prior to 2016 resulted in the discovery of several significant nickel sulphides showings along the entire 23-km-long belt. Most notable is the GUC Central discovery, 7 kilometres northwest of the Grasset Deposit, which hosts a 950-metre-thick ultramafic sequence with several mineralized horizons of nickel sulphides and a best mineralized intercept of 4.14% Ni over 0.65 metres, within 7.58 metres of 1.05% Ni.