First Cobalt shares up 13% on Juno Mine exploration results

By Peter Kennedy

First Cobalt Corp. [FCC-TSXV; FTSSF-OTCQB; FCC-ASX] has reported high-grade cobalt assays from grab samples extracted from the past-producing Juno Mine property near the town of Cobalt, northeast Ontario.

Investors reacted by sending the shares up 12.8% to $1.41 on December 4, 2017.

The company said surface sample results from the Juno Mine at Cobalt North in the Kerr Lake area point to the existence of a broad hydrothermal system.

First Cobalt is the largest land owner in the historic Cobalt Camp, the site of a silver rush that began in the early 1900s. The company controls over 10,000 hectares of prospective land and 50 historic mines as well as a mill and the only permitted cobalt refinery in North America capable of producing battery metals.

Its Kerr Lake area properties include the past producing Juno, Drummond, Kerr Lake, Lawson and Conisil mines, all of which operated primarily as silver mines. Juno is located approximately 1 km from the Kerr Lake Mine, which produced over 12 million ounces of silver between 1905 and 1966.

First Cobalt began drilling in the Cobalt Camp in 2017 and seeks to build shareholder value through new discoveries and growth opportunities. The Juno Mine was targeted for surface sampling due to the presence of visible cobalt in muck pile material as well as its proximity within the Kerr Lake area mines, the company said.

First Cobalt said grab samples at the former Juno mine confirm high-grade cobalt veins, including 3.9%, 2.6% and 2.0% cobalt as well as silver grades of up to 4,112 g/t. Results confirm the presence of high cobalt, low silver mineralization in the area that, along with the nearby Drummond Mine, could be targets for early feed material.

“Juno is another example of a historic high-grade cobalt mine on our land package that could be a target for bulk mining potential or as early feed to a centralized mineral processing facility within the Cobalt Camp,” said First Cobalt Present and CEO Trent Mell.

“We will continue to confirm the grade variability and size of these mines in the 2018 exploration program as the first step to establishing a flow sheet for cobalt production in the Cobalt Camp,” he said.

The company said follow-up exploration at Juno as well as other high-grade cobalt mines in the Kerr Lake area will consist of shallow, close-spaced drilling along the strike length of the known veins to determine grade and variability and the orientation of the veins.

It is also assembling a 3D geological model of the Kerr Lake area. Geophysical data will be incorporated to generate near-surface drilling targets for a follow-up program in 2018, the company said.

First Cobalt’s stated objective is to create the largest pure-play cobalt exploration and development company in the world. In keeping with that goal, the company recently completed three-way mergers with Australian Stock Exchange-listed Cobalt One Ltd. and CobalTech Mining Inc.

The historic Cobalt camp has never seen the required land consolidation to permit district-scale exploration, First Cobalt has said.