The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Garibaldi resumes drilling at exciting Golden Triangle discovery North of 60 Mining News – June 14, 2019
At a time when electric vehicles are driving the need for increased nickel, Garibaldi Resources Inc. is unveiling an extremely high-grade deposit of this battery metal at its Nickel Mountain project about 18 kilometers (11 miles) southwest of the historic Eskay Creek Mine in the heart of British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
"Increasingly, Nickel Mountain represents an important new discovery within the Eskay Rift," said Peter Lightfoot, a technical advisor to Garibaldi and nickel geology expert. "The project is ideally positioned to leverage the demand from dramatically declining nickel sulfide discoveries and the resulting depletion of high-quality nickel inventories required to fuel the electric vehicle battery revolution."
Garibaldi first tapped the nickel- and copper-rich E&L intrusion at Nickel Mountain with a hole drilled in 2017. This discovery hole, EL-17-14, cut 16.75 meters averaging 8.3 percent nickel, 4.2 percent copper, 0.19 percent cobalt, 1.96 grams per metric ton platinum, 4.5 g/t palladium, 1.1 g/t gold and 11.1 g/t silver from a depth of 100.4 meters.
Following up on this first of its kind discovery in the Golden Triangle, the Vancouver, B.C.-based explorer continued to drill into exceptionally high grades in what is shaping up to be a widespread deposit with multiple layered zones of nickel- and copper-rich massive sulfide mineralization.
In addition to the two massive sulfide zones tapped in 2017 – Upper and Lower Discovery – Garibaldi's 2018 program tapped a shallower zone known as Northeast.
One of the 2018 holes, EL-18-33, cut all three zones, including a 48.98-meter interval of Northeast Zone averaging 1.34 percent nickel, 0.89 percent copper, 0.04 percent cobalt, 0.23 g/t platinum, 0.34 g/t palladium, 0.23 g/t gold and 3.7 g/t silver from a depth of 37.88 meters.
This intercept included 4.77 meters of 7.69 percent nickel, 2.95 percent copper, 0.20 percent cobalt, 0.68 g/t platinum, 0.78 g/t palladium, 0.42 g/t gold and 7.3 g/t silver from a depth of 77.05 meters.
EL-18-30, collared from the same location as EL-18-33 but angled slightly toward the east, also cut the Northeast, Upper and Lower Discovery zones. The best intercept in this hole was 9.68 meters averaging 3.01 percent nickel, 1.61 percent copper, 0.08 percent cobalt, 0.37 g/t platinum, 0.42 g/t palladium, 0.37 g/t gold and 4.3 g/t silver from a depth of 37.88 meters.
A 3.17-meter section of this intercept averaged 7.78 percent nickel, 3.19 percent copper, 0.23 percent cobalt, 0.65 g/t platinum, 0.78 g/t palladium, 0.48 g/t gold and 7.3 g/t silver from a depth of 75.9 meters.
Garibaldi said the sheet-like massive sulfides identified in the Lower and Upper Discovery zones, along with the overlying Northeast zone, are indicative of a strong sub-horizontal control on massive sulfide mineralization at the edge of the E&L intrusion.
"What's most striking to me about the Upper and Lower Discovery zones, upon review of extensive data, is not just the grades but how the massive sulfide sheets are gently dipping and appear to be stacked at the southern margin of the E&L intrusion," said Lightfoot. "The observation these zones are stacked on the south flank of the intrusion and also developed on the north flank adds an important guide in exploration of the E&L intrusion at depth and along strike. There are analogues to this among nickel sulfides deposits elsewhere around the globe."
Lightfoot capped a distinguished 20-year career working as a geologist in the nickel-rich Voisey's Bay and Sudbury regions of eastern Canada by publishing the first comprehensive textbook on the ore deposits of the Sudbury Igneous Complex.
Lightfoot's observations are helping to guide Girabaldi's aggressive 2019 drilling, a program that is targeting the expansion of the five zones already identified – Lower Discovery, Upper Discovery, Northeast, Central and Northwest – as well as targeting the discovery of new zones of massive sulfide mineralization across a 12-kilometer- (7.5 miles) long area of nickel prospective geology identified at E&L.
"Our geological team enters the 2019 program with more excitement and confidence than ever after reviewing all data from six months of Nickel Mountain drilling covering 46 holes (2017 and 2018)," said Garibaldi Resources President and CEO Steve Regoci.
The 2019 program at Nickel Mountain, now underway, is utilizing advanced heli-portable surface drill rigs mounted on a hydraulic powered rotating turn table allowing for rapid azimuth and dip change. This eliminates costly helicopter support to realign drill rigs when targeting off hole anomalies. The drills also feature data logging capabilities, providing drilling metrics on a per shift basis.
These state-of-the-art drills, which require less water and fuel than comparable rigs, are expected to significantly increase daily drilling meterage and dramatically reduce costs per meter drilled.
"Garibaldi looks forward to leading the charge with new discoveries at the E&L and along the Nickel Mountain trend where the gabbroic complex is now known to extend for at least 12 kilometers," said Regoci.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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