Drilling continues to highlight potential of higher-grade core at Canada Nickel’s Crawford project near Timmins

Canada Nickel Company Inc. has released the remaining assay results from the East Zone and additional results from infill drilling on the Main Zone at its Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide project.

“Our infill drilling program continues to deliver outstanding results.  Another drill hole delivered higher grades than our average Higher-Grade Core resource of 0.31% nickel along the entire core length – and most importantly, the hole begins with 249 metres at 0.36% extending 50 metres outside our existing 0.35% grade shell. These results continue to highlight the potential of the Higher-Grade Core in our Main Zone,” said Mark Selby, Chair and CEO of Canada Nickel. “We remain on track to complete our Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) by year-end. Our resource update, expected by the end of July, has been delayed approximately four weeks due to unusually wet weather earlier in the summer which delayed our access to the final three drill holes to complete our infill program (the next 200 metres east of hole 42). We now expect to deliver a resource update by the end of August. Drier weather has allowed us to resume drilling next week and once in-fill drilling is completed,  we will also follow up on the previously reported excellent PGM results from hole CR20-32 (three separate intersections including 2.6 g/t over7.5 metres) and several other prospective geophysical nickel targets on the several kilometres of the Crawford structure which remain untested.”

The Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project is located in the heart of the prolific Timmins mining camp and is adjacent to well-established, major infrastructure associated with over 100 years of regional mining activity.

Main Zone

Infill drilling on the Main Zone continued to focus on more clearly defining and upgrading the Higher-Grade Core resource which was previously defined as part of the resource estimate and dips steeply within the ultramafic unit and having a true thickness that varies from 40 to 160 m.
 
Infill hole CR20-43 on Main Zone returned 0.33% nickel, 0.014% cobalt, 0.027 g/t palladium and 0.010 g/t platinum, and 0.29% sulphur over core length of 357 metres from the start of the hole at 45 metres, beginning with 0.36% nickel over 249 metres and included 86 metres grading 0.39% nickel, 0.014% cobalt, 0.03 g/t palladium and 0.01 g/t platinum, and 0.41% sulphur.  Assays from the remaining 15 holes and the final 3 holes to be completed will be released over the next several weeks. See Table 1 and Figure 1 for results.
 
Table 1 – Main Zone Nickel – Drilling Results, Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, Ontario
*These holes were drilled at a steep angle of -80 degrees almost entirely within the higher-grade core to better determine grade. The estimated true width of this zone has been determined from previous drilling to vary from 40 to 160 m depending on location of the section.

Figure 1 - Plan View of Main Zone Nickel Resource, Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, Ontario.


East Zone - Nickel

The East Zone has continued to deliver consistently long intersections of nickel and cobalt intercepts and grades. See Table 2 and Figure 2 for results.

Table 2 – East Zone Nickel – Drilling Results, Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, Ontario


Figure 2 - Plan View of East Zone Nickel Zone - Drilling Results overlain on total field magnetic intensity, Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, Ontario.


PGM Zone

Both holes that intersected the northern contact between the peridotite and pyroxenite layer just north of the nickel structure on the East Zone again returned consistent palladium-platinum intersections.  Hole CR20-38 returned 1.8 g/t palladium + platinum (0.8 g/t Pd, 0.9 g/t Pt) over 4.5 metres (ETW: 2.9m) within 1.5 g/t palladium + platinum (0.7 g/t Pd, 0.7 g/t Pt) over 6.0 metres (ETW: 3.9m), from 189 metres downhole. Hole CR20-41 returned 1.8 g/t palladium + platinum (0.9 g/t Pd, 0.9 g/t Pt) over 4.5 metres (ETW: 2.9m) within 1.5 g/t palladium + platinum (0.7 g/t Pd, 0.8 g/t Pt) over 6.0 metres,(ETW: 3.9m) from 321 metres downhole. See Table 3 and Figure 3 for results.

Table 3 – PGM Zone – Drilling Results, Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, Ontario


Figure 3 – Plan view of PGM Zone - Recent drilling overlain on total field magnetic intensity, Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, Ontario.


Next Steps

We expect to begin drilling the final three infill holes next week, which results to be incorporated into an updated resource now expected by the end of August.  Once in-fill drilling is completed, the Company will also be able to follow up on the previously reported excellent PGM results from hole CR20-32 (three intervals including 2.6 g/t over core length of 7.5 metres) and several other prospective geophysical targets on the several kilometres of the Crawford structure which remain untested on the western side of the highway.

Table 4 – Drill Hole Orientation, Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, Ontario


Assays, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and Drilling and Assay Procedures 

William E. MacRae, MSc, P.Geo., a "qualified person" as defined by NI 43-101, is responsible for the on-going drilling and sampling program, including quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC). The core is collected from the drill in sealed core trays and transported to the core logging facility. The core is marked and sampled at 1.5 metre lengths and cut with a diamond blade saw. Samples are bagged with QA/QC samples inserted in batches of 35 samples per lot. Samples are transported in secure bags directly from the Canada Nickel core shack to Actlabs Timmins, an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited lab. Analysis for precious metals (gold, platinum and palladium) are completed by Fire Assay while analysis for nickel, cobalt, sulphur and 17 other elements are performed using a peroxide fusion and ICP-OES analysis. Certified standards and blanks are inserted at a rate of one QA/QC sample per 32 core samples making a batch of 35 samples that are submitted for analysis.
 

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