Fathom Nickel (CSE:FNI) has delivered the first mineral resource estimate (MRE) for its Gochager Lake Project in Saskatchewan, Canada, defining nearly 30 million pounds of contained nickel and 9 million pounds of copper.
The maiden MRE covers the Gochager Lake deposit, which forms part of an 8km nickel-copper-cobalt trend identified by Fathom across the property in northern Saskatchewan.
The indicated resource totals 858,701 tonnes grading 0.41% nickel, 0.12% copper, and 0.03% cobalt, for contained metal of 7.7 million pounds of nickel, 2.2 million pounds of copper, and 600,000 pounds of cobalt.
Within the indicated resource is a higher-grade portion comprising 192,144 tonnes grading 0.78% nickel, 0.21% copper, and 0.06% cobalt, for an estimated 3.3 million pounds of nickel, 900,000 pounds of copper, and 300,000 pounds of cobalt.
The project also hosts an inferred resource of 3.1 million tonnes grading 0.32% nickel, 0.09% copper, and 0.03% cobalt, containing 22.1 million pounds of nickel, 6.3 million pounds of copper, and 1.8 million pounds of cobalt.
The MRE was estimated using a database comprising 17 diamond drill holes totalling 5,990m, completed between 2018 and 2024.
“The MRE provides a strong foundation for advancing the project and supports our view that Gochager Lake is part of a much larger, dynamic magmatic system within a prospective mineralised corridor,” Fathom CEO Ian Fraser says.
Expansion potential
Within the resource area, drilling has defined multiple semi-massive to massive sulphide breccia zones grading above 1% nickel, according to Fraser.
The mineralised body at Gochager Lake is currently defined over approximately 300m of strike, ranges from about 40m to 75m in thickness, and extends to approximately 450m below surface.
Fathom believes its recent drilling indicates potential to expand mineralisation along strike and beyond the limits of the maiden resource.
“We believe the sulphide breccias and the extent of disseminated mineralisation within and beyond the current MRE point to a significantly larger magmatic nickel-copper-cobalt system,” Fraser says.
Fathom recently completed a second phase of drilling at Gochager Lake, totalling 3,174m.
According to the company, the program identified new zones of nickel-copper-cobalt mineralisation across approximately 800m of strike tested.
Fathom Nickel is an exploration company that is targeting magmatic nickel sulphide discoveries to secure the supply of North American critical minerals.
Write to Jackson Chen at Mining.com.au
Image: Fathom Nickel
