First Point’s Decar starts to take shape

Vancouver – First Point Minerals (FPX-V) has released assays from the first 9 of 36 holes from the 2011 drill program at its flagship Decar nickel-iron alloy project in central British Columbia. Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF-N) managed the 10,861-metre program and holds an option to acquire up to 75% of the project.

Of the nine initial holes, eight tested the main Baptiste zone along approximately 200-metre centres while one tested a stand-alone target located 4.6 km to the north named Target B. The Baptiste holes largely returned long intersections such as 263 metres grading 0.13% awaruite, a rare type of mineral hosted in serpentinized peridotite that the company refers to as “magnetically recovered nickel.”

When paired with two holes from drilling in 2010, the results suggest a deposit with an east-west strike length of open-ended, continuous mineralization over at least 1,050 metres. They have also shown that mineralization at Baptiste extends more than 600 metres from north to south, and to a vertical depth of about 230 metres. Unfortunately, First Point believes one of the new holes, 11BAP-06, likely marks the northern boundary of Baptiste mineralization. The zone remains open to the south, east and west, however, as well as at depth.

The remaining 27 holes at Baptiste tested areas to the west, east and north, meaning the central-south boundary of the Baptiste zone will require additional drilling. One hole, 11BAP-09, also tested the deposit to a depth of 600 metres instead of the usual 300 metres downhole. Assays are pending for those holes.

After the results from all core samples are received, Cliffs will get Caracle Creek International Consulting to evaluate whether there are sufficient data to prepare a maiden National Instrument 43-101 inferred mineral resource estimate. There is no guarantee that the 2011 drilling campaign will be enough, however, and as many of the remaining holes are slightly to the north of hole 11BAP-06 (the northern boundary hole), a third season of drilling may be required to establish an initial resource. Should this occur, Cliffs would then likely have to delay completing a preliminary economic assessment for the project, previously expected by the end of 2012.

As for the single exploration hole plugged into Target B, it returned a long intersection of 258.5 metres averaging 0.13% awaruite, confirming it as a potential stand-alone target. First Point says visually estimated nickel-iron alloy grains reached 700 microns, or 0.7 millimetre, in size, representing some of the coarsest-grained mineralized material observed to date at Decar. This is good news, as the coarser the grains, the easier they are to recover using magnetic separation.

Other intercepts from Baptise include 305 metres of 0.12% magnetically recovered nickel, 259 metres of 0.14% magnetically recovered nickel and 254 metres of 0.16% magnetically recovered nickel.

Peter Bradshaw, First Point’s president and chief executive officer, commented in a press release about the results: “The length and grade of these holes are impressive. They represent an important step in the process of demonstrating the possible presence of a bulk-tonnage, open-pittable nickel-iron alloy deposit at Decar.”

Shares of the company gained marginally on the drill results, edging up one-half cent to 44¢ on 100,000 shares traded at presstime on Dec. 19.