Ontario nickel projects advance

Nickel projects in northern Ontario seem to be proceeding nicely, defying the predictions of doom vented before the takeovers of Inco and Falconbridge.

First Nickel (FNI-T, FNKLF-O), drilling at the Lockerby mine on the north edge of the Sudbury irruptive, expects to see a significant increase in the resource on the project’s Lockerby Depth zone, following a 40-hole drill program through the fall and winter that extended the area known to be mineralized outside the envelope of a July 2005 resource estimate.

Among the better results were a 34.2-metre intersection that graded 3.15% nickel and 1.73% copper, and a 32.3-metre intersection averaging 3.19% nickel and 1.82% copper.

Inspiration Mining (ISM-V, IRMGF-O) recently finished a 5-hole program on the Langmuir nickel deposit, 25 km south of Timmins, testing at depth below the workings of the former Langmuir No. 1 mine.

One hole, 26 metres downdip from the mine’s 315-ft. (96-metre) underground level, intersected massive sulphides at the base of the host komatiite flow, which graded 8.32% nickel over 1 metre. That was part of a 10.2-metre intersection that averaged 2.65% nickel, and other zones of disseminated mineralization stratigraphically above the massive sulphides graded 0.35% to 1.17% nickel.

Two other holes made similar intersections farther downdip; 53 metres below the workings, a 1.1-metre intersection ran 12.22% nickel, and 98 metres down, a 3-metre intersection averaged 0.74% nickel; both holes encountered multiple zones on the way down.