Murchison Minerals Ltd (TSX-V:MUR, OTCQB:MURMF, TSX-V:MUR.V) has announced “robust” results from portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) on five diamond drill holes at its Haut-Plateau de la Manicouagan project in Quebec.
The drill holes were located within the Barre de Fer (BDF) zone, which is part of the company’s 2022 summer exploration program. The goal of the analysis was to expand and delineate the known zone of mineralization in order to support work for the future maiden resource on BDF.
Results to date have significantly expanded both the depth and width of the modeled nickel-bearing sulphide mineralization, while further demonstrating the potential for any future development at BDF to be open-pit amenable, the company said.
READ: Murchison Minerals says summer prospecting at HPM strengthened project's district-scale nickel-bearing sulphide potential
"Today's results continue to demonstrate the robust fundamentals of the HPM project,” CEO Troy Boisjoli said in a statement. “At Barre de Fer we continue to intersect near surface, high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt mineralization, that is an indication BDF would be amenable to open pit extraction.”
He continued: “When you couple that with results from our prospecting program that discovered multiple new mineralized sulphide showings on surface, it adds to our confidence that we are exploring in an emerging nickel-sulphide district with advanced infrastructure.”
Specifically, drilling intersected semi-massive sulphide mineralization as shallow as 8.5 meters (m) in hole BDF22-003. That hole also intersected 3.67 m estimated at 3.74% pXRF nickel equivalents or 11.14% pXRF copper equivalents and 4.31 m estimated at 2.37% pXRF nickel equivalents or 7.08 copper equivalents.
Hole BDF22-004 intersected 9.5 m estimate at 0.79% pXRF nickel equivalents or 2.34% pXRF copper equivalents, including 3.5 m estimated at 1.50% pXRF nickel equivalents or 4.48 copper equivalents.
All told, mineralization at depth has now been modeled down to 450 m and expanded along the width of the mineralized zone from 150 m to 200 m, with individual lenses now modeled up to 48 m in thickness.
Murchison has completed a total of 13 drillholes during the diamond drilling phase of its 2022 summer program, comprising 4,316 meters.
"The results we are receiving from the 2022 Barre de Fer drill campaign are encouraging from the shear scope and scale of the sulphides intersected particularly when paired with grade of the [nickel, copper and cobalt],” vice president of exploration John Shmyr said. “The technical team is optimistic and we look forward to advancing BDF towards a maiden resource as the drill results continue to exceed our expectations."
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