FPX Nickel Corp (TSX-V:FPX) has announced the results of the summer 2021 infill drilling program at the Baptiste Project at the company's wholly-owned Decar nickel district in central British Columbia.
The company said the results are highlighted by hole 21BAP073, which returned the third-highest grading broad interval of near-surface nickel mineralization in the project's history.
"We are very pleased to see that the 2021 drill results validated the 2020 PEA block model, while continuing to showcase very strong, near-surface DTR Davis Tube magnetically-recovered nickel grades in the Baptiste starter pit area," said Martin Turenne, FPX CEO in a statement.
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"We expect these results will confirm the conversion of inferred mineralization to the indicated category for a mineral resource estimate in support of a preliminary feasibility study at Baptiste, which stands as the world's third-largest undeveloped nickel deposit," he added.
The results validated the preliminary economic analysis (PEA) block model and potentially expanded higher grade, near-surface DTR nickel mineralization at the Baptiste deposit beyond the 2020 PEA resource model.
A drill hole was intersected at 254.9 m grading 0.151% DTR nickel from 48.1 m downhole, including 157.3 m grading 0.154% DTR nickel, representing the third-highest grading, near-surface interval ever intersected at the Baptiste deposit.
Another drill hole was intersected 153.0 meters grading 0.128% DTR nickel from 47 m downhole, including 79.0 m grading 0.139% DTR nickel.
Highlights also included drill hole intersected 317.2 m grading 0.135% DTR nickel from 33.8 m downhole, including 114.0 m grading 0.159 % DTR nickel; and intersected 136.4 m 0.120% DTR nickel from 39m downhole.
The 2021 Baptiste drilling campaign was designed to convert near-surface inferred resources to the indicated classification to support an eventual Baptiste preliminary feasibility study.
The mine plan from the 2020 PEA envisaged the mining of a total of approximately 1.5 billion tonnes of indicated and inferred material averaging 0.120% DTR nickel over the project's 35-year mine life, with approximately 89% of this mineralization classified in the indicated category and 11% in the inferred category.
The ten holes drilled during last year's campaign are the first holes drilled at Baptiste since 2017, the company noted.
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