FPX Nickel rallies on Decar, B.C., drilling news,
FPX Nickel Corp. [TSXV-FPX] shares rallied Monday after the company released additional drill results from its wholly-owned Decar nickel district in central British Columbia.
The Decar Nickel District is a greenfield discovery of nickel mineralization in the form of a naturally-occurring nickel-iron alloy called awaruite. Covering 245 square kilometres, it represents a promising target for bulk tonnage, open pit mining, the company has said.
FPX said the latest results have confirmed the lateral extension of the significant new discovery at the Van target area, which is located six kilometres north of the Baptiste deposit. Baptiste has been the main focus of diamond drilling at the site since 2010.
FPX shares advanced on the news, rising 8% or $0.04 to 55 cents on volume of 216,320. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 94 cents and 42 cents.
The company said it has completed a nine-hole, 2,688-metre drill program at the Van Target where bedrock samples occur in an area that was previously unexplored due to ground cover and which was recently exposed by logging activity. The program was expected to take eight weeks to complete.
Results from holes 21VAN-003 and 21VAN-004 complement the first two discovery holes reported by the company on October 19, 2021. The company said the first four VAN holes are defining a zone of strong awaruite nickel mineralization measuring approximately 350 metres wide by 400 to 55 metres long, to down hole depths of 350 metres.
Assays from the remaining five holes from this year’s maiden drill program are expected to be reported in the company weeks.
Hole 21VAN-003, which intersected 0.143% DTR nickel (0.196% total nickel) starting at an approximate vertical depth of 48 metres below surface. This intercept marks one of the 10 highest-grading, near-surface intervals in the history of Decar, the company said.
FPX said results from hole 21VAN-003 compare favourably with previous drilling at Baptiste, which contains 1.996 billion tonnes of indicated resources at an average grade of 0.122% DTR nickel and 593 million tonnes of inferred resources with an average grade of 0.114% DTR nickel, both reported at a cut-off grade of 0.06% DTR nickel.
FPX President and CEO Martin Turenne said the positive results from drill holes 21Van-003 and 21VAN-004 support the view that strong mineralization can occur in areas that extend beyond mineralized outcrop, thus expanding the scale of the conceptual target at Van. “We look forward to reporting additional assays form this year’s maiden nine-hole Van program in the coming weeks.”