Canadian explorer Power Nickel (TSX-V:PNPN) has hit the main mineralised structure within the Lion Zone of its flagship Nisk Project in Québec following a retargeting exercise.
The company has released the second set of results obtained for three more holes in the summer 2024 drilling campaign at the polymetallic Lion Zone discovery.
These new results show the “biggest intersection yet” in hole PN-24-070 of 32m @ 0.45 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 20.93g/t silver, 3.62% copper, 8.10g/t palladium, 2.47g/t platinum and 0.18% nickel – or 6.97% copper equivalent.
This interval included 10m @ 0.50g/t gold, 12.94g/t silver, 1.76% copper, 10.82g/t palladium, 5.98g/t platinum and 0.08% nickel; and 11.4m @ 0.60g/t gold, 44.51g/t silver, 8.39% copper, 11.52g/t palladium, 1.24g/t platinum and 0.42% nickel.
CEO Terry Lynch says with one of the best holes to date, it is becoming more evident that the Lion discovery is substantially bigger than Power Nickel originally envisioned.
“We basically drilled hole 70 and at 118m deep, we hit the jackpot,” CEO Terry Lynch tells Mining.com.au.
Lynch says while earlier drilling was “chasing the primary zone”, Power Nickel initially missed it because drilling had not gone as steeply as it needed to.
“We ended up just into that halo area, which we again had … really good results, but obviously outside the primary zone,” he says.
“So, we retargeted the next set of holes.
“Taking education from the holes drilled and announced earlier this week, we went further west and much shallower and struck the zone at 118m.
“This is very encouraging for lots of reasons: size of zone, grade, depth of intersection, and the move westward.”
Another hole (PN-24-069) hit 17m @ 0.28g/t gold, 9.52g/t silver, 0.93% copper, 7.19g/t palladium, 1.66g/t platinum and 0.05% nickel.
This included sections of 6m @ 0.42g/t gold, 19.33g/t silver, 0.96% copper, 11.68g/t palladium, 3.69g/t platinum and 0.04% nickel; and 5m @ 0.35g/t gold, 7.80g/t silver, 1.78% copper, 9.69g/t palladium, 0.74g/t platinum and 0.09% nickel.
The 2024 summer program focused on the depth and lateral continuity to the west of the current known mineralisation.
The Lion Zone hosts a current resource of 7.1 million tonnes @ 1.13% nickel equivalent comprising multiple 10m-plus zones with copper up to 8%, platinum group metals of over 22 grams per tonne (g/t), gold of over 1.6g/t and silver in excess of 69g/t.
Vice President of Exploration Ken Williamson says the second batch of results confirms that deformation is more intense at depth below the Lion Zone.
“The interesting thing is that deformation intensity does not seem to have any impact on the grades obtained for the different metals,” he says.
“Grades obtained over a shy 1.70m in hole PN-24-068 are similar, if not better, than those previously reported in hole 67, but over 12.15m.
“Thus, we have the grades, even within the relatively thin intersections, and it is fair to presume that the mineralisation is being transposed into a fault zone to a nearby offset location, likely deeper to the east.”
Williamson says in parallel, drilling on the west side of the zone indicates that Power Nickel is still in the thicker portion of the zone.
“This core seems to be moderately plunging to the west. Our takeaway is that the Lion Zone is likely much bigger than originally envisioned,” he says.
In addition to expanding the Lion Zone via targeted drilling, Power Nickel is also in the process of compiling information from several data sources, including downhole electromagnetics, gravity and geochemical data.
Williamson says this information, combined with ambient noise tomography passive seismic data, should provide for a “very robust drill targeting strategy session” which will determine Power Nickel’s 30,000m fully funded fall and winter drill program set to begin on 15 October.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Power Nickel
