Canada Nickel grows Main and East zones at Crawford

The new drill results extend the known PGM zones and Nickel zones by more than 1.5 km along strike. Image from Canada Nickel Company.

Canada Nickel has released full assays for hole CR20-33 as well as nickel assays for hole CR20-32, which step out the East zone nickel-PGM mineralization by 400 metres to the east at the Ontario project and extend the Main zone nickel mineralization by 1.5 km to the north, respectively.

The drill highlights include 38 metres of 0.37% nickel and 0.17 g/t PGMs within a 315-metre interval of 0.25% nickel starting at 120 metres from hole CR20-33 as well as 243 metres of 0.25% nickel and 0.013% cobalt starting at 390 metres in hole CR20-32 (PGM assays for this intercept were reported on May 19).

"Our latest drilling results further reinforce our belief that Crawford is one of the leading next generation nickel-cobalt sulphide and palladium projects"

"We are very pleased with the latest significant nickel mineralization step-outs - extending our Main zone by 1.5 km and our East zone discovery by 400 metres," Mark Selby, the company's chairman and CEO, said in a release.

"Importantly, this is the second of three holes on the East zone with a higher-grade interval (0.37% nickel over 38 metres) that also contained elevated palladium and platinum grades. Our latest drilling results further reinforce our belief that Crawford is one of the leading next generation nickel-cobalt sulphide and palladium projects."

Crawford currently features two known zones of nickel-cobalt-PGM mineralization: the Main and East zones. These latest results suggest a 3.2-km total strike of the Main zone, which remains open to the west, and extend the East zone, which lies within a 2.8-km long geophysical anomaly, by 400 metres, to 2.1 km of strike.

Canada Nickel announced the discovery of the East zone on May 19 - initial assays reported earlier this month include 55 metres of 0.42% nickel and 0.2 g/t PGMs within a 256-metre interval grading 0.3% nickel and 0.05 g/t PGMs.

The PGM-bearing zone at Crawford appears to lie at the geologic contact directly to the north of and parallel to the nickel-bearing structure. The company first discovered this zone in April - according to the company, it appears to span the entire length of the Crawford unit.

(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)