First Point shares up 105% so far in 2012

The junior mining sector is off to a good start in 2012, though few companies have seen their share price rise as much as First Point Minerals (FPX-V). The company’s shares are up 105% since Dec. 30, climbing from a near-52-week low of 41¢ to close at 79¢ on Feb. 1. In comparison, the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index rose 10.2% over the same period.

First Point released a string of positive announcements in January, including: final assay results from the largest drill program to date at its flagship Decar nickel-iron alloy project in central British Columbia; encouraging nickel-iron alloy prospecting results from new properties in other parts of the province; and the appointment of investment banker James Gilbert as president and CEO. 

On Jan. 16, First Point released assays for the remaining 27 of 36 drill holes completed at Decar during the 2011 exploration season, operated by joint venture partner Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF-N). The holes confirmed the presence of a large, boomerang-shaped deposit of awaruite hosted in serpentinized peridotite (what the company calls a nickel-iron alloy) up to a vertical depth of 430 metres. Awaruite mineralization is now found to extend over 2.3 km along strike and from 450 to 600 metres in width, with the deposit open in both directions along strike, as well as to the south and at depth.

The drill program also confirmed that mineralization at Decar is largely continuous, with most intervals returning around 275 metres grading 0.13% magnetically recoverable nickel as determined using the Davis Tube method and bottoming in mineralization.

Cliffs is currently preparing a maiden National Instrument 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate for Decar that it expects to complete in the coming weeks. If positive, the joint venture partners say they will immediately start work on a preliminary economic assessment for the project.

With Cliffs largely in control of work at Decar, management at First Point has been looking for new sources of the never-before-mined awaruite. The company announced on Jan. 19 it had made a new discovery at a recently staked prospect named Wale, about 50 km east of Dease Lake in northern B.C. 

First Point’s vice-president of exploration, Ron Britten, says the mineralized footprint at Wale includes a 10-km-long stretch of anomalous-grade, disseminated nickel-iron alloy mineralization containing a main 3.1-km-long zone defined by 113 bedrock samples that average 0.09% nickel. “Wale is one of the best properties we have found to date, and is comparable to Decar in both scale and stage of exploration at the time Decar was optioned to Cliffs in November 2009,” Britten states. 

The company has proposed a 2,000-metre drill program there this summer.

First Point recently staked two other properties in B.C. named Orca and Letain, which are roughly 64 km west and 77 km east of Wale, respectively. The company has eight early-stage properties around the world that are prospective for awaruite, three of which – Wale, Mich and Klow – include drill-ready targets. The company dropped three other properties this year following disappointing fieldwork in 2011.

James Gilbert joined First Point’s executive team as of Jan. 24, after two years as president and CEO of Minera SA, a private mining investment company focused on Latin America that is chaired by the former president of Bolivia. Most of Gilbert’s prior experience lies in investment banking for the resource sector, having previously worked for Merrill Lynch, Rothschild and Coopers & Lybrand.

At presstime on Feb. 3, shares of First Point were up 3¢ to 81¢ on 31,000 shares traded.