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The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drill hits nickel in ZTEM anomaly 200m below E&L Intrusion North of 60 Mining News – September 23, 2022
Click on image for larger Nickel Mountain E&L zone graphic.
Garibaldi Resources Corp. reported that hole EL-22-97b intersected nickel-bearing disseminated and semi-massive sulfide mineralization 205 meters down-trend of the previous deepest mineralized intercept at the E&L Intrusion on the Nickel Mountain project in British Columbia.
Located about 18 kilometers (11 miles) southwest of Skeena Resources Ltd.'s Eskay Creek gold-silver mine project, the E&L zone at Nickel Mountain is a magmatic nickel-copper-cobalt massive sulfide discovery surrounded by a multitude of base and precious-metal outcrops with 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.
A Z-Axis Tipper Electromagnetic (ZTEM) geophysical survey flown over Nickel Mountain in 2021 identified a large low-resistivity and elevated conductivity ZTEM response beneath the limits of drilling at E&L. Garibaldi says this broad and continuous geophysical anomaly plunges directly below the multiple massive sulfide lenses and extends more than 3,000 meters laterally and plunges 2,000 meters below the valley floor.
EL-22-97b represents the first-ever hole to test the down-plunge extension of the eastern zone of the E&L Intrusion that coincides with the ZTEM anomaly.
This hole cut E&L mineralization more than 205 meters down trend from previous drilling. Garibaldi says semi-massive sulfides were encountered at 472.2 and 597.3 meters. Portable XRF measurements taken on the sulfide grains returned 2.8% nickel and 1.1% nickel, respectively.
"This first hole provides strong support for the proposition that ZTEM responses may represent the expression of a mineralized system," said Garibaldi Resources CEO Steve Regoci.
Garibaldi Resources Vice President of Exploration Jeremy Hanson says the mineralization encountered in hole EL-22-97b is a good sign for further drilling in this area.
"Typically, when we find disseminated and semi-massive sulphides, massive sulphides are not too far away," he said.
Peter Lightfoot, technical advisor to Garibaldi, says the geology and mineralization observed in hole EL-22-97b indicates that the E&L mineral system extends to depth.
"Significant exploration step-outs to test this plane will greatly improve our efforts to locate extensions of mineral zones using borehole EM methods," he said.
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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