Garibaldi taps spectacular nickel, copper

Garibaldi Resources Corp. Sept. 12 reported assay results from the longest massive sulfide and mineralization intercepts so far at Nickel Mountain, a magmatic nickel- and copper-rich sulfide system about 11 miles (18 kilometers) southwest of the past producing Eskay Creek Mine in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.

Garibaldi first tapped the nickel- and copper-rich E&L intrusion at Nickel Mountain in 2017. This 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.

By the end of 2018, the company had drilled 46 holes into this nickel- and copper-rich magmatic massive sulfide discovery.

The latest batch of results are from two holes targeting Lower Discovery Zone, an increasingly important target of the E&L intrusion.

Hole EL-19-53, filling a gap in the northwest part of the Lower Discovery Zone, cut 30.2 meters averaging 4.74 percent nickel, 3.22 percent copper, 0.13 percent cobalt, 1.26 grams per metric ton platinum, 2.59 g/t palladium, 0.82 g/t gold and 8.1 g/t silver.

This was part of a wider 86.5-meters intercept averaging 1.88 percent nickel, 1.32 percent copper, along with cobalt and the precious metals.

This was the longest intercept of continuous mineralization tapped east of the historical E&L deposit since Garibaldi discovered the high-grade Lower and Upper Discovery zones in 2017. This hole also encountered the longest section of massive sulfides ever drilled.

"The spectacular 18.24-meter interval of high-grade massive sulfide from the Lower Discovery Zone in EL-19-53 demonstrates the continuity of the mineralization, and encourages further drilling to establish the vertical and lateral extent of this exceptionally valuable style of mineralization," said Peter Lightfoot, a technical advisor to Garibaldi and nickel geology expert.

The latest batch of drill results also included 4.76 meters of 7.12 percent nickel and 3.34 percent copper, as well as cobalt and precious metals, in hole EL-19-48. This was within a 44.5-meter intercept of 1.2 percent nickel and 0.79 percent copper, extending the Lower Discovery Zone 12 meters to the northeast.

"The improved structural understanding of the known zones at Nickel Mountain is leading to increasingly robust results and new discoveries," said Garibaldi Resources President and CEO Steve Regoci. "It has also aided us in developing strategic new drill pad locations that now allow our crews to explore the E&L from a different geometry."

In addition to results from the 2019 program, the company had EL-17-14, a hole the company drilled in 2017, resampled for its platinum group metals content.

The resampling assays show that this hole cut 16.75 meters of 8.29 percent nickel, 4.24 percent copper, 0.19 percent cobalt, 1.96 g/t platinum, 4.47 g/t palladium, 0.17 g/t rhodium, 0.11 g/t osmium, 0.22 g/t ruthenium, 1.13 g/t gold and 11.1 g/t silver.

"This is an interesting development which speaks to the unusual geochemical signature of the E&L sulfides and the strong enrichment in platinum group elements," said Lightfoot. "This strong enrichment in rhodium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium reaches an apogee at the center of the massive sulfide zone. If these metals can be recovered into a concentrate, they will certainly add to the value of the massive sulfides."

–SHANE LASLEY