The latest results from Power Nickel’s (TSX-V:PNPN) drilling at the Lion Zone polymetallic discovery in Québec show an even bigger intersection than previously reported.
The new top hit spans 39.6m @ 4.19% copper equivalent, which CEO Terry Lynch says is the “biggest intersection we have to date”.
This intercept comprises 0.38 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 19.57g/t silver, 2.62% copper, 3.37g/t palladium, 0.80g/t platinum, and 0.13% nickel.
The previous largest intersection, reported by Mining.com.au in early October, was 32m @ 0.45g/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 is incredibly rich in metal contained,” Lynch says of the latest intercept.
“We are expecting to deliver more of these types of holes as we finish off the last of our summer drill program. The Lion Zone is showing impressive grades and overall thickness and doing this consistently.
“We are building significant tonnage for our resource model.”
Accompanying the biggest intercept yet in hole PN-24-071 were sections of 11.6m @ 0.88g/t gold, 49.9g/t silver, 8.25% copper, 9.57g/t palladium, 2.64g/t platinum, and 0.34% nickel
This includes 3m @ 1.56g/t gold, 63.03g/t silver, 10.39% copper, 11.42g/t palladium, 7.9g/t platinum, and 0.32% nickel.
Hole PN-24-073 intercepted 29.1m @ 0.25g/t gold, 4.97g/t silver, 0.51% copper, 1.52g/t palladium, 0.7g/t platinum, and 0.06% nickel, including 2.1m @ 0.21g/t gold, 20.67g/t silver, 3.53% copper, 4.05g/t palladium, 0.1g/t platinum and 0.27% nickel, and 3m @ 1.67g/t gold, 14.93g/t silver, 0.89% copper, 10.36g/t palladium, 5.71g/t platinum, and 0.04% nickel.
Vice President of Exploration Ken Williamson says not only is the semi-massive sulphides zone continuing to deliver in terms of grade, this time around it is also delivering in thickness.
“With such volume of semi-massive to massive conductive sulphides, there is no doubt that the downhole EM surveys will help us out big time,” he says.
“We hope the EM response will be crystal clear, which should allow us to loosen up the grid from 50m spacing to something like 150-200m spacing and grow in a much quicker way the overall footprint of the zone, while maintaining a very good confidence level in terms of continuity of the zone.
“That, coupled with our 3D modeling efforts, should provide the framework we need to then take advantage of our ongoing geochemical and geophysical analysis of the system.”
This is the third set of results for two more holes of the summer 2024 drilling campaign.
Lynch says Power Nickel will start delivering the results of the fall program, where the company is more than one week into its 30,000m fully funded fall and winter program.
“It’s an exciting time to be a Power Nickel shareholder as together we are discovering just how big the Lion Zone can be and how important a discovery Nisk could become,” he says.
The Lion Zone, which is part of Power Nickel’s flagship Nisk Project, 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 22g/t, gold of over 1.6g/t, and silver in excess of 69g/t.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Power Nickel
