The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - November
Awaruite, such as this 13-gram nugget found in Oregon, is a nickel-iron mineral that offers a potentially cleaner source of nickel needed for the energy transition.
This year's sampling outlined a 2,200- by 575-meter awaruite-mineralized footprint at Mich Central Zone.
FPX has expanded its Mich property to cover newly discovered awaruite in an area underlain by ultramafic rocks.
FPX Nickel Corp. Nov. 14 reported that its summer sampling program at its Mich property in the Yukon has outlined a nickel zone that is comparable in size, grade, and style of mineralization as Baptiste, an advance-staged exploration project in central British Columbia that shows the potential of being a significant future supply of low-carbon nickel and cobalt, both of which are used in lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles and storing renewable energy.
Baptiste has the distinction and advantage of hosting a specialized nickel mineral known as awaruite, which is a nickel-iron alloy formed when sulfur is not present during mineralization.
Nickel concentrates produced from mining awaruite do not require smelting or high-pressure acid leaching. This means that less energy is needed to upgrade awaruite concentrates into nickel products needed for battery and steelmaking, which equates to less carbon dioxide emission than if the battery metal was produced from sulfide or laterite ores that are the source of nearly all the world's nickel.
The potential environmental benefits associated with producing high-quality nickel from the awaruite found at Baptiste have drawn the attention of international mining, steelmaking, and battery manufacturing firms. This includes the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) – a Japanese government corporation focused on securing mineral and energy resources – which has forged a partnership with FPX to carry out a global search for awaruite.
This year's sampling outlined a 2,200- by 575-meter awaruite-mineralized footprint at Mich Central Zone.
This led FPX to further explore Mich, a Yukon property about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Whitehorse underlain ultramafic rocks of the Cache Creek Terrane, the same belt of rocks that host the awaruite mineralization at Baptiste.
Mapping and surface sampling carried out at Mich from 2011 to 2013 outlined a 1,300-meter-long zone of disseminated awaruite mineralization with surface samples returning grades as high as 0.143% nickel.
Two holes drilled in 2014 cut long intercepts of awaruite mineralization, including 454 meters averaging 0.087% nickel.
This year, geologists carried out grid-based rock sampling over the Central Zone at Mich. This sampling has outlined a 2,200- by 575-meter footprint at Mich Central Zone, with grades running slightly higher than similar sampling carried out over the 3,200- by 1,200-meter Baptiste deposit, which hosts enough reserves to support a mine capable of producing 132 million lb of nickel annually for 29 years.
FPX has also discovered additional awaruite mineralization in previously unexplored areas on claims it staked earlier this year southeast of Mich Central Zone.
FPX has expanded its Mich property to cover newly discovered awaruite in an area underlain by ultramafic rocks.
"We are pleased the 2024 Mich program has successfully expanded the footprint of Mich's known awaruite zone with grades comparable to Baptiste, as well as identified new areas of awaruite mineralization beyond the previous claims boundary," said FPX Nickel Senior Vice-President of Projects and Operations Andrew Osterloh. "When considered alongside FPX's continued development of Baptiste and our ongoing generative exploration joint venture with JOGMEC, the exploration success at Mich continues to position awaruite as a disruptive new source of low-carbon, low-cost, nickel for both the stainless and EV battery supply chains."
As a result of the success of the 2024 field program, FPX plans to carry out follow-up sampling during the 2025 field season and has newly staked a further 18 square kilometers (seven square miles) of claims covering newly identified mineralization, bringing the total Mich claims package to 105 square kilometers (40.5 square miles).
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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