First Nickel moves on Bowell results

Shares in First Nickel (FNI-T) shot up 18, or 13%, to $1.58 in early trading in Toronto on Oct. 24, after the company reported some impressive nickel and copper grades in the first hole of an ongoing drill program on the recently optioned Bowell property near Sudbury.

The drilling intersected a pipe-like zone running 1.32% nickel, 1.89% copper, and 1.25 grams combined palladium, platinum and gold (Pt+Pd+Au ) over 39.8 metres, including 23.1 metres of 1.2% nickel, 2.21% copper, and 1.27 grams Pt+Pd+Au.

The massive to semi-massive sulphide mineralization is hosted in a footwall Sudbury Breccia unit situated on the eastern portion of the North Range of the Sudbury Basin.

A 16.1-metre section running 1.53% nickel, 1.5% copper, and 1.25 gpt Pd+Pt+Au is associated with contact-style sulphide mineralization and comprises the upper portion of the zone.

The drilling is part of an 8,000-metre drill campaign designed to test several targets outlined during a recently completed deep-penetration, high resolution induced polarization/resistivity survey.

Slated for drilling are geophysical targets with signatures similar to that of the known sulphide deposit at Bowell, including three targets to the east of the known deposit and a potential 200-metre eastern extension of the known mineralization. Grab sampling of 2 other geophysical anomalies associated with gossanous zones to the east by Falconbridge (FAL.LV-T, FAL-N) yielded nickel values between 1.15 and 1.77%.

The Bowell property’s contact deposit hosts a measured resource of 601,800 tonnes averaging 1.18% nickel, 0.71% copper, and 0.04% cobalt. Indicated resource total 645,900 tonnes running 1.17% nickel, 0.35% copper, and 0.04% cobalt. Another 400,000 tonnes of inferred material grades 1.1% nickel, 0.2% copper, and 0.04% cobalt.

A second drill rig is currently working on better defining the higher-grade portion of the known deposit, and to exploring for further footwall sulphide mineralization at depth.

The northwest portion of the deposit extends to surface, with the remainder open down-dip and along strike (as well as within the immediate footwall below the contact).

The company also plans to drill an as yet untested 1.5-km stretch of North Range Sudbury igneous complex contact to the northeast of the known deposit.

First Nickel can earn a 100% stake in the Bowell project by spending $1.5 million on exploration and metallurgical, engineering and environmental studies, and a feasibility study by March of 2006. The company must also begin production a year thereafter. The deal also calls for a $2-million cash payment to Falconbridge.

Meanwhile, First Nickel has begun mining at the Lockerby mine at the southwestern end of the South Range of the Sudbury igneous complex (SIC), 30 km west of Sudbury.

Long-hole drilling of level 61 in the Depth zone stope is underway as is ore development for the second stope on level 63. The Depth zone is expected to yield 700 tonnes of ore per day by the first quarter of 2006.

Underground drilling is also underway on the East zone of the Lockerby mine, with the goal of increasing and upgrade resources to reserves. A second drill rig is on its way to begin upgrading resources in the Depth zone to reserves.

The Depth and East zones are currently home to measured and indicated resources totalling 174,000 tonnes at 2.6% nickel and 1.3% copper, and inferred resources of 892,000 tonnes averaging 2.2% nickel and 1.4% copper.

First Nickel plans to truck ore to Falconbridge’s Strathcona mill in November.

Discovered by Falconbridge in the southwestern region of the Sudbury igneous complex in 1962, Lockerby produced more than 8 million tonnes of ore averaging 1.79% nickel and 1.07% copper until it was put on care and maintenance at the end of 2003.