FPX Nickel Corp (TSX-V:FPX) has outlined plans for 2022 exploration drilling at its Decar Nickel District in British Columbia, saying this year's drilling will focus on expansion of mineralization at the Van Target, where an initial drilling program in 2021 confirmed a major new discovery and suggested the potential for Van to host a large-scale, standalone nickel deposit that could rival the deposit already delineated at Decar's Baptiste deposit.
The mineral exploration company said this year's program will comprise about 3,000 metres of drilling over 8-10 holes, stepping out meaningfully to the south, southwest and west of the holes drilled in 2021.
“We are very excited to test the expansion of the new discovery at Van, where the first seven holes in 2021 all returned broad intervals of strong awaruite nickel mineralization,” FPX Nickel CEO Martin Turenne said in a statement.
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“This year's program will test the western half of the outcrop-defined target area, and probe the expansion of mineralization to the south of the 2021 holes, in an overburden-covered zone where no outcrop is available,” Turenne added.
FPX noted the 2022 program will follow the trend of increasing grade and thickness to the south and west, as observed in drill sections from the 2021 program, as well as test strong Davis Tube Recoverable (DTR) nickel occurrences in outcrops to the southwest.
It added that drilling at Van is expected to occur over an approximate six-week period beginning in late June 2022, and will be based on a combination of skid- and helicopter-supported setups.
As well, the company said the three southernmost of the Van holes drilled in 2021 returned among the 10 highest-grading, near-surface intervals in the history of Decar, suggesting that Van has strong potential to host a higher-grade, near-surface resource than that found at Baptiste, where the majority of higher-grade mineralization occurs at depth.
FPX Nickel is focused on the exploration and development of the Decar Nickel District, located in central British Columbia, and other occurrences of the same unique style of naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy mineralization known as awaruite.
Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com