The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
High-grade E&L intrusion at Nickel Mtn primary 2021 target North of 60 Mining News – June 4, 2021
Core from 2019 drilling at the battery minerals-rich E&L intrusion on Garibaldi Resources' Nickel Mountain project.
Visible gold in a sample collected from the Casper vein on the Nickel Mountain property that averaged 76.9 g/t gold.
Garibaldi Resources Corp. June 1 announced that crews have arrived at the camp at Nickel Mountain for a 2021 exploration program that will further explore the battery metals for which this Northern British Columbia project is renowned, as well as to follow up on precious metals for which the Golden Triangle is renowned.
"The growing demand for critical metal sources required to drive the new green economy, and precious metals to protect against increasing inflation, was the compelling vision for our entire pipeline of district-scale projects," said Garibaldi Resources CEO Steve Regoci. "The advancing Eskay claim group ranks high for potential to deliver new discoveries as metal prices trend higher."
Located about 18 kilometers (11 miles) southwest of the historic Eskay Creek Mine, the Nickel Mountain project hosts E&L, a magmatic nickel-copper-cobalt massive sulfide discovery surrounded by a multitude of base and precious-metal outcrops of nickel, copper, zinc, gold, silver, and platinum group metals.
Garibaldi first tapped the nickel- and copper-rich E&L intrusion in 2017. One of the earliest holes, EL-17-14, cut 16.75 meters averaging 8.29% nickel, 4.24% copper, 0.19% cobalt, 1.96 grams per metric ton platinum, 4.47 g/t palladium, 1.13 g/t gold, and 11.12 g/t silver.
Following up on this Golden Triangle discovery, 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.
Highlights from this continued drilling of the E&L massive sulfide zones include:
• 7.4 meters averaging 7.89% nickel, 3.92% copper, 0.20% cobalt, 1.85 g/t platinum, 3.42 g/t palladium, 1.07 g/t gold and 8.77 g/t silver in EL-18-16.
• 5.74 meters averaging 7.26% nickel, 5.11% copper, 0.17% cobalt, 2.25 g/t platinum, 5.95 g/t palladium, 0.91 g/t gold and 16.06 g/t silver in EL-18-19.
• 8.4 meters averaging 7.77% nickel, 3.29% copper, 0.21% cobalt, 1.16 g/t platinum, 2.33 g/t palladium, 0.79 g/t gold and 8.75 g/t silver in EL-18-20.
• 18.24 meters averaging 7.12% nickel, 3.81% copper, 0.19% cobalt, 1.27 g/t platinum, 2.69 g/t palladium, 0.68 g/t gold and 7.65 g/t silver in EL-19-53.
• 9.83 meters averaging 7.24% nickel, 3.64% copper, 0.21% cobalt, 1.35 g/t platinum, 2.66 g/t palladium, 0.78 g/t gold and 7.77 g/t silver in EL-19-82.
Garibaldi has kicked off the 2021 program with two specialized airborne geophysical surveys – a ZTEM (Z-Axis Tipper Electromagnetic) survey to track conductive high-grade E&L intrusions and SkyTEM, another electromagnetic survey designed to identify structures with prospective stratigraphy for the discovery of Eskay Creek-style VMS precious-metal mineralization.
"We're anxious to receive the ZTEM and SkyTEM survey results as we prepare for drilling," said Regoci. "Our top priority is to explore deeper and along trend at E&L, but we also have large numbers of exciting new nickel-copper and VMS gold targets to explore as well."
Besides the very high grades encountered so far, one of the reasons Garibaldi is focused on expanding E&L mineralization is the rocketing demand for battery metals and copper being driven by the global transition to renewable energy and electric vehicles.
Reconnaissance exploration carried out in 2020 provided intriguing clues of wider nickel-copper mineralization on the property.
"Mineralized outcrop approximately 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) northeast of Nickel Mountain have been recently discovered which returned 2.4% nickel and 3.2% copper utilizing a portable XRF," said Garibaldi Resources Vice President of Exploration Jeremy Hanson.
Abundant precious metals potential identified at the Nickel Mountain and adjacent Palm Springs and Eskay North properties offers a bonus in a global economy where rising inflation is pushing gold and silver prices higher.
Due to a low cloud ceiling during a very rainy summer in Northern BC that prevented helicopter access to the higher elevation E&L zone, much of the 2020 exploration focused on one of the gold targets sitting at lower elevation.
This target, Casper, is a gold-rich polymetallic quartz vein that has been traced for at least 500 meters.
Garibaldi encountered multiple gold zones with four holes drilled at Casper last year, including a 3.58-meter intercept in hole CAS-20-03 that cut 4.05 g/t gold and 0.6 g/t silver.
"Our initial goal was to confirm the surface expression of the Casper vein extended to depth, which we certainly accomplished as well as intercepting a number of additional gold-bearing veins and mineralized silicified units," said Hanson.
Other gold targets to be explored this year include Palm Springs, where previous work has identified Eskay Creek-style precious metals enriched volcanogenic massive sulfide potential, and Eskay North, which is about 2,500 meters north of the past-producing high-grade Eskay Creek gold-silver mine on Skeena Resources Ltd.'s property.
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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