First Point Minerals Corp announced that it has encountered extensive nickel-iron alloy mineralization carrying promising grades during a first pass of wide-spaced exploration drilling at the 100%-owned Wale property in northern British Columbia. Highlights include:
12DH-01 162m of 0.137% nickel-in-alloy(see note)
12DH-04 393m of 0.089% "
including 141m of 0.111% "
12DH-06 261m of 0.126% "
12DH-09 265m of 0.083% "
including 54m of 0.142% "
12DH-10 140m of 0.100% "
The drill results indicate the underlying ultramafic package of rocks hosts widespread, disseminated, fine to coarse grained nickel-iron alloy carrying grades better than 0.05% nickel-in-alloy. The tops of hole DH-1 and DH-2, and portions of holes DH-4, DH-5, DH-6, DH-9 and DH-10, encountered nickel-in-alloy grades exceeding 0.1%, and as high as 0.142%, over lengths ranging from 31 to 262 metres.
First Point's Vice-President of Exploration Dr Ron Britten said that "A large zone of nickel-iron alloy mineralization discovered and outlined in 2011 was successfully confirmed in long intersections of nickel-in-alloy in the 2012 drill program. These drill results, coupled with surface rock sampling results from the adjoining Orca property and the newly defined Garth's Knob target in the southeastern portion of the Wale property, indicate a semi-continuous zone of mineralization that extends over a 14.5-kilometre strike length. There is excellent exploration potential along this camp-scale trend to build on and expand the higher-grade 0.1% nickel-in-alloy mineralization during 2013."
The first round of drilling tested a 3.6-kilometre-long portion of the northwest-southeast trending Eagle target with 10 core holes totalling 2,764 metres. The holes were drilled from six sections spaced 460 to 1,220 metres apart. The location of some drill holes on ridge lines and talus covered slopes was driven by local, rugged topography, which reaches a maximum elevation of 2,020 metres.
