Nickel North Exploration Corp (TSX-V:NNX) has announced a 77% increase in mineral resources at its Hawk Ridge nickel-cobalt-PGE sulphide project in northern Québec.
The junior resource firm released an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) outlining an increase of 76.6% to 34.66 million tonnes (Mt) of inferred resource.
Total inferred mineral resources for four mineralized deposits – Hope Advance Main (HAM), Hope Advance North (HAN), Gamma and Falco 7 – increased by 76.6% to 34.66Mt at 0.22% nickel, 0.56% copper, 0.013% cobalt, 0.19 grams per ton (g/t) palladium, 0.05 g/t platinum and 0.025 g/t gold, the company said.
READ: Nickel North Exploration posts mineral resources update; invites investors to visit company booth at PDAC
The resource includes total pit-constrained inferred mineral resources at a C$35-per-ton NSR cut-off increase by 50% to 29.44Mt, at 0.20% nickel, 0.52% copper, 0.012% cobalt, 0.19 g/t palladium, 0.04 g/t platinum and 0.021 g/t gold, which equates to 0.56% nickel equivalent.
The total underground resource, at a C$100-per-ton NSR cut-off, is estimated at 5.22Mt at average grades of 0.35% nickel, 0.79% copper, 0.014% cobalt, 0.23 g/t palladium, 0.06 g/t platinum, and 0.04 g/t gold, which equates to 0.88% nickel equivalent.
Nickel North said that higher-grade, "Raglan-type" sulphide mineralization exists in all four reported nickel-copper sulphide deposits and all of them remain open along strike and down-dip.
"This mineral resource update delivers on both of its key objectives - better definition and increased the pit-constrained mineral resource and establishing an initial mineral resource for potential underground mining,” Nickel North CEO Tony Guo said in a statement.
Guo told investors that the update “puts (Nickel North) in excellent position for planning the next large drilling program to further define both high grade out-of-pit targets and expanding the pit-constrained mineral resources in the late 2022 to summer 2023 working seasons”.
Nickel North said that “significant” exploration potential remains with approximately 50% of the Hawk Ridge mineralized structure and mineral occurrences being undrilled or untested and will soon be actively explored.
"I look forward to the 2022 summer surface exploration program and 2023 drilling program to explore our several highly prospective nickel-copper-cobalt-PGM targets at Hawk Ridge, and to completing further mineral and metallurgical testing for the Hawk Ridge,” Guo added.
Hawk Ridge consists of a 50-kilometre-long belt of strong magmatic copper-nickel-cobalt-PGE occurrences covering 173 square kilometres. The project is located near tidewater in the mining-friendly province of Québec.
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