Fathom Nickel Inc (CSE:FNI, OTCQB:FNICF) has wrapped up drilling activities at its Albert Lake project and has redirected its drilling resources to the Gochager Lake project, the company announced.
Drilling operations at the Gochager Lake project commenced on March 12 and are slated to persist until mid-April 2024.
The Gochager Lake program aims to drill between 2,000-2,500 meters in up to seven drillholes. Initial drillholes will focus on following up on previous nickel-copper-cobalt mineralization encountered in drillhole GL23009.
Additionally, new high-priority drill targets have been identified outside the historic Gochager Lake deposit area.
"We are very excited to get back to the historic Gochager Lake deposit and continue to build out this deposit and increase tonnes and grade in the process,” Fathom CEO and VP Exploration Ian Fraser told investors. “The nine holes drilled in 2023 provided an initial good understanding of the dynamics of the historic Gochager Lake deposit and we look forward to continuing to build on this understanding.”
At Albert Lake, Fathom drilled six holes totaling 1,386 meters.
Drillhole AL24075, the inaugural drillhole, penetrated multiple zones of elevated sulphide mineralization from 295 to 348.5 meters, though the mineralization is not of magmatic origin as initially hoped, Fathom noted.
The company intends to provide a comprehensive summary of the program once assay results are available by mid-late April 2024.
Ian Fraser, CEO and VP Exploration of Fathom Nickel, expressed a mixture of encouragement and disappointment regarding the Albert Lake project's outcomes.
“Although we are disappointed the significant sulphide mineralization encountered in the first drillhole appears to be not magmatic in origin, we are encouraged that the remainder of the drill program did identify several, shallow weak to moderate zones of conductivity by BHEM and by our detailed surface EM grids,” Fraser said in a statement.
“Some of these zones are coincident with zones of mafic-ultramafic rock intersected in our drill program. However, the robust soil geochemical anomaly that was our focus remains unexplained and eminently worthy of future exploration.”
Future drilling at the Albert Lake targets will use a smaller track or skid-mounted drill for greater flexibility and cost effectiveness, Fraser noted.