Fathom Nickel Inc (CSE:FNI) told investors it is "very encouraged" after receiving assays from a limited two-hold drilling program at its Albert Lake project in Saskatchewan that confirm the presence of anomalous nickel within mafic to ultra-mafic rocks.
The company said it was unable to extend the drill program beyond the initial two drillholes due to significant budget constraints, but plans to perform more land-based geophysical work soon before recommencing drilling later this year or early in 2024.
“Drillholes AL23073 and AL23074 were our first look into the very robust soil geo-chem anomaly defined at the Tremblay-Olson Claim (Nic5) area in our fall-22 program. These holes were essentially geology drillholes designed to get an understanding of the robust surface geochemistry anomaly,” CEO and vice president of exploration Ian Fraser said in a statement.
“The positive offhole BHEM responses in both drillholes align with historic VLF (very low frequency - EM) and VTEM (heliborne Versatile Transient Electromagnetic) anomalies. We have identified sufficient evidence - geochemistry, geologic and geophysics - to suggest mineralized ultramafic sources within the Tremblay-Olson Claim (Nic5) Area.”
Fathom said it had planned to drill several drillholes within the Tremblay-Olson Claims Area, including a drillhole along strike of the Bay-Island Trend. However, it said it terminated the project after completing drillhole AL23074 due to several temporary logistical issues that resulted in significant cost overruns associated with both the Gochager Lake project and the Albert Lake project.
"The highly anomalous metals-in-soil detected in the Q4-22 geochemistry program remains a very high priority exploration target,” Fraser added. “We will return to Albert Lake in the coming weeks to perform additional land-based geophysical work so that we can recommence drilling in Q4-23 or Q1-24 with increased precision on our drill targeting.”
Fraser said the company has also planned a surface TDEM program this summer at the Tremblay-Olson Claims Area as it further fine-tunes the drill targeting exercise.
Upsized private placement
In a separate announcement, the company said it has upsized the gross proceeds for its previously announced best efforts non-brokered private placement financing to C$3 million due to very strong demand.
All other terms of the offering, which include a combination of charity flow-through units priced at $0.19, flow-through units priced at $0.155 and hard dollar units priced at $0.135, remain the same, it added.
The company noted that Crescat Capital LLC has agreed to make a strategic investment for up to 25% of the offering.
"We are very pleased with the response from current and prospective investors of Fathom to the announcement of the now Upsized Offering," Fathom president and chief financial officer Doug Porter said. "The additional proceeds from the Upsized Offering will allow us to expand the extent of the field exploration programs at both the Gochager Lake and Albert Lake Projects. A more detailed exploration plan and timeframe will be announced once finalized in the coming weeks."
-- Updated with details of upsized placement --
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com