OBC shows low-grade potential

The results of sampling at the OBC property in northern Quebec, owned by Band-Ore Resources (CDN) and under option to First Western Minerals (VSE), show low copper and nickel grades. Both companies see the potential for a large, low-grade deposit.

The property’s A zone was drilled in five locations over a 1.2-km strike length. Core lengths of 20-42 metres were intersected, with average grades ranging from 0.25% to 0.34% copper and from 0.12% to 0.17% nickel.

A surface occurrence, the B zone, has a strike length of about 430 metres and was trenched in eight locations. Copper grades ranged from 0.99% to 3.36% and nickel, from 0.36% to 0.7%, over widths of 2 to 11 metres. A third surface occurrence, the C zone, is 330 metres south of the A and B zones, and has been sampled, but assays have not yet been released.

First Western is earning a 51% interest in the property by spending $1.5 million on exploration, and can purchase an additional 29%. The company is performing ground geophysical surveys on the B and C zones to establish the drill targets, and is also working on two other anomalies detected in airborne geophysical surveying. The OBC property is 70 km west of Kuujjuaq, Que., in the Labrador-Cape Smith fold belt.

First Western has also released drill results from its Mont Paul property in the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, where earlier work had discovered two showings with nickel concentrations in grab samples ranging from 3.9% to 23% nickel.

In hole MP-9501, an intersection of 9.8 metres graded 1.6% nickel, and in MP-9502, a 3-metre intersection featured a nickel concentration of 3%. The most recent hole, MP-9503, showed a 6-metre intersection grading 2% nickel. The company will be testing another nickel showing about 1 km away when work on the present showing is finished.