FPX Nickel drills 0.133% DTR nickel over 346.3 metres at Decar, British Columbia
FPX Nickel Corp. [FPX-TSXV; FPOCF-OTCQB] reported the first step-out drill hole results confirming continued near-surface lateral extension of strong nickel mineralization at the Van target in the 100%-owned Decar nickel district in central British Columbia.
The first three wide-spaced holes drilled this year at Van, which is located 6 km north of the Baptiste Deposit, returned some of the strongest results in the district’s history, highlighted by the results of 22VAN-012, which intersected the highest-grading broad interval of near-surface nickel mineralization drilled to-date at Van.
Highlights: Van step-out drillholes show that the strong mineralization in previously reported outcrop samples continues to depth southwest of the zone first drilled in 2021. Hole 22VAN-010 intersected 346.3 metres grading 0.133% DTR Nickel from the start of bedrock at 51.3 metres downhole to the end of hole, including 136.0 metres of 0.143% DTR Nickel from 91.0 metres downhole.
Hole 22VAN-012 intersected 334.5 metres grading 0.120% DTR Nickel from 6.0 metres downhole, including 176.0 metres of 0.142% DTR nickel from 6.0 metres downhole, and further including 100.0 metres of 0.150% DTR nickel from 70.0 metres downhole.
Nickel mineralization at Van is the same as Baptiste, occurring as disseminated awaruite (nickel-iron alloy) and in ophiolite host rocks
The results at Van compare favourably with previous drilling results at Baptiste, which contains 1.815 billion tonnes of Indicated resources averaging 0.129% DTR nickel, plus 339 million tonnes of Inferred resources averaghing 0.131% DTR nickel (both reported at a cut-off grade of 0.06% DTR nickel).
“We are very pleased with these first step-out drill results from Van, confirming the potential for this target to host a large-scale, standalone nickel deposit to rival the deposit already delineated at Baptiste,” commented Martin Turenne, president and CEO. “Based on the drill results reported to-date from the 2021 and 2022 programs, we have delineated consistently strong near-surface nickel mineralization in drilling over an area measuring approximately 1 km long by 1 km wide, to downhole depths over 300 m. The remaining drillholes completed in this year’s ten-drillhole program stepped out to the west of this mineralized zone; we look forward to reporting assays from those remaining holes in January.”
The results of 22VAN-010, 22VAN-011 and 22VAN-012 are the first from a step-out drill program consisting of 10 holes and totaling 2,504 meters at the Van Target, which is located 6 km north of Baptiste at similar elevations. This year’s step-out program was designed to expand the large mineralized zone identified during 2021’s successful inaugural drill program.
The company’s Decar Nickel District claims cover 245 km2 of the Mount Sidney Williams ultramafic/ophiolite complex, 90 km northwest of Fort St. James in central British Columbia. The district is a two-hour drive from Fort St. James on a high-speed logging road.
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. Since 2010, approximately US$28 million has been spent on the exploration and development of Decar.
Of the four targets in the Decar Nickel District, the Baptiste Deposit, which was initially the most accessible and had the biggest known surface footprint, has been the focus of diamond drilling since 2010, with a total of 99 drillholes and 33,700 metres of drilling completed. The Sid target was tested with two holes in 2010 and the B target had a single hole drilled in 2011; all three holes intersected nickel-iron alloy mineralization over wide intervals with DTR nickel grades comparable to the Baptiste Deposit. In 2021, the Company executed an inaugural drilling program at Van which returned results comparable with the strongest results at Baptiste.