Highlights
• First four holes intersected multi-hundred metre intervals of mineralized dunite
across a strike length of two kilometres
• Near-surface mineralization – overburden less than five metres thick
• Preliminary mineralogy samples from first two holes confirm:
• mineralization dominated by awaruite, a recoverable nickel-iron alloy mineral
• more than triple Crawford’s content of brucite, which is highly reactive for
carbon sequestration, in hole MID23-02
Canada Nickel Company Inc (TSXV:CNC) (OTCQX: CNIKF) announced positive preliminary drill results from the first four holes on the Midlothian Property (the “Property” or “Midlothian”), located 70 kilometres south-southeast of Timmins, Ontario.
The Company has drilled four holes totaling 1,548 metres to complete its initial phase of testing a large geophysical target 2.7 kilometres along strike by up to 800 metres thick and open at depth.
Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel Company, said,
Midlothian Property
Access to Midlothian is via an all-weather gravel road west from the town of Matachewan. Midlothian is an option agreement between Canada Nickel, Canadian Gold Miner Corp. (70%) and Laurion Mineral Exploration Inc. (30%) whereby Canada Nickel can earn a 100% undivided interest to fifty (50) mining claims covering the Property through a combination of cash payments, share issuances, and exploration expenditures over four years which was outlined in our news release of November 22, 2021.
Historically, a total of 30 holes were drilled over the last 50 years by various operators with 23 holes intersecting serpentinized peridotite/dunite and 17 holes ending while still in the ultramafics. Six drillholes, each intersected over 100 metres of continuous, uninterrupted dunite/ultramafic, with LM08-01 intersecting 263.8 metres to the end of hole. Seven holes had nickel assays, with the best interval inhole LM08-01 which yielded 0.24% nickel across core length of 345 metres with the final 42 metres grading 0.30% nickel. Nickel sampling was not continuous down most drillholes. (see release dated November 22, 2021 for further details)
Current Drill Results
Four holes were drilled along a strike length of two kilometres, all oriented to the south with an inclination of -50o and maximum length of 400 metres. Overburden in the area varied between 2.0 and 7.7 metres in downhole length (less than 5 metres thick).
MID23-01 was collared toward the centre of the intrusion and intersected 343 metres of highly serpentinized dunite starting at 2.0 metres and ending at 345 metres. Selected samples were taken for metallurgical testing (QEMSCAN) that confirmed the samples were well-serpentinized with varying amounts of heazlewoodite and awaruite. The hole encountered two narrow (~0.5 metres) dikes.
MID23-02 was collared approximately 400 metres west of MID23-01 and intersected a continuous unit of serpentinized dunite below 7.7 metres of overburden to the end of hole at 401 metres. Selected samples were taken for metallurgical testing (QEMSCAN) which confirmed the samples were well-serpentenized and contained awaruite from 0.35% awaruite to 0.49% awaruite. These samples also indicated brucite content of 8.7 to 10.9% more than triple the content at Crawford.
MID23-03 was collared approximately 400 metres west of MID23-02, and within 300 metres of the western margin of the ultramafic target. The hole intersected a continuous unit of serpentinized dunite below 5.0 metres of overburden until the end of hole at 401 metres, interrupted only by a 5.5 metre dike.
MID23-04 was collared approximately two kilometres east of MID23-03 and within 400 metres of the eastern margin of the ultramafic target. The hole intersected a sequence of pyroxenite, peridotite and dunite starting at 4.0 metres downhole. This sequence is typically found on the contact of these ultramafic sills. A continuous unit was logged from 80.0 – 401.0 metres as a strongly serpentinized dunite.
Assays, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and Drilling and Assay
Edwin Escarraga, MSc, P.Geo., a “qualified person” as defined by National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for the on-going drilling and sampling program, including quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC). The core is collected from the drill in sealed core trays and transported to the core logging facility. The core is marked and sampled at 1.5 metre lengths and cut with a diamond blade saw.
One set of samples is transported in secured bags directly from the Canada Nickel core shack to Actlabs Timmins, while a second set of samples is securely shipped to SGS Lakefield for preparation, with analysis performed at SGS Burnaby or SGS Callao (Peru). All are ISO/IEC 17025 accredited labs. Analysis for precious metals (gold, platinum, and palladium) are completed by Fire Assay while analysis for nickel, cobalt, sulphur and
other elements are performed using a peroxide fusion and ICP-OES analysis. Certified standards and blanks are inserted at a rate of 3 QA/QC samples per 20 core samples making a batch of 60 samples that are submitted for analysis.
Qualified Person and Data Verification
Stephen J. Balch P.Geo. (ON), VP Exploration of Canada Nickel and a “qualified person” as is defined by National Instrument 43-101, has verified the data disclosed in this news release, and has otherwise reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release on behalf of Canada Nickel Company Inc.
The magnetic images shown in this press release were created from Canada Nickel’s interpretation of datasets provided by the Ontario Geological Survey.
Canada Nickel is a market awareness client of Capital 10X. For more information, including potential conflicts of interest please see our Content Disclaimer.
