Fathom Nickel (CSE:FNI) Inc said it has completed its first quarter 2023 drill program at the Gochager Lake Project with highlights including two drill holes intersecting broad zones of disseminated, semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralization.
The exploration company said equipment and personnel are currently being remobilized to the Albert Lake Project where diamond drilling is expected to commence by March 3, 2023.
"The initial drillhole confirmed the presence of mineralization previously identified in historic drillhole IVY-67-012, and the second drillhole also confirmed the Gochager Lake deposit style of mineralization and provided an excellent platform for the BHEM surveys,” said Ian Fraser, CEO and VP Exploration in a statement.
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“As expected, the BHEM tool has proven extremely useful in identifying off-hole conductors. We eagerly await assay results which will be released upon receipt and interpretation, expected in early April. Our attention now turns to the Albert Lake project where we will be targeting several very exciting priority areas including the Tremblay-Olson Claims area."
Gochager Exploration Program
Drillhole GL23003 was drilled to a depth of 336 meters (m) and GL23004 was drilled to a depth of 389m. Both holes intersected broad zones of disseminated, semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralization. Three historical drillholes were also open to bottom and were probed with induction and fluxgate probes. The 2023 drillholes were also probed with both systems. Several off-hole responses were detected including, importantly, a strong response outside the area of known mineralization, the company said.
Core samples are currently being prepped for shipping to ALS Global's Vancouver laboratory. Samples will be assayed for the full suite of base and precious metals including, importantly, cobalt. Historic samples were never systematically sampled for cobalt in spite of reported grades as high as 0.143% Co from selected assays retrieved from historic drillhole IVY-67-12 available at the La Ronge Core Library.
Albert Lake Exploration Plan
Further commenting on the Albert Lake Exploration Program, Fraser stated: "We are excited to drill test the favourable soil geo-chem targets that we have defined at the Tremblay-Olson Claims area. The soil geochem, the coincident gradient MAG and MAG inversions, VTEM and AirTEM along with the recently completed gravity survey data defines a very favourable exploration target along trend and to the southwest of the historic Rottenstone deposit. We look forward to confirming that the metal (Ni, Cu, Co, Mg, Cr and Pd, Pt) contained in soils at the Tremblay-Olson Claims area is the result of a mineralized ultramafic source."
The focus of the exploration strategy at Albert Lake for the Q1-2023 program is centred on the Tremblay-Olson Claims area anomaly(s). Fathom will be drill testing these target areas beginning in the first week of March.
The priority target areas for the Q1-2023 Albert Lake program are as follows:
- Nic-5 - The Nic-5 area has the most robust multi-element soil geochemistry anomaly(s) encountered thus far at the Albert Lake Project. Individual soils collected in the fall of 2022 returned up to 497 parts per million (ppm) Ni, 547ppm Cu, and one soil sample with a combined 1.21 grams per ton (g/t) 3PE (platinum-palladium+gold). Two to three drill holes are planned for this area.
- Bay-Island Trend Extension – The Bay-Island Trend, which occurs 400-500m west-northwest of the historic Rottenstone deposit, defines a 300+ meter mineralized ultramafic body discovered by drilling in 2021-2022. This priority drill target will be drilled from the ice.
- TO-South - TO-South refers to a coincident deep MAG/gravity target with a strong localized multi-element soil geochemistry anomaly occurring along trend of all known ultramafic occurrences southwest of the historic Rottenstone deposit. One drillhole is planned at the TO-South target area.
- Rottenstone Mine Southwest Extension - Time and budget permitting, Fathom will test the northeast continuation into the lake from the Nic-5 area, along trend to the historic Rottenstone deposit. A drill hole in this area, followed by a BHEM survey, would test this possible footwall offset.
Fathom targets magmatic nickel sulphide discoveries to support the rapidly growing global electric vehicle market. It has a portfolio of two high-quality exploration projects located in the prolific Trans Hudson Corridor in Saskatchewan.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com