Power Metallic hits 4.4% copper at Nisk in Quebec

Power Metallic Mines (TSXV: PNPN; US-OTC: PNPNF) has hit two more thick, shallow polymetallic intervals at the Nisk project’s Lion zone. Shares rose.

Both holes are about 100 metres below surface, extending the core of the Quebec discovery across about 200 metres of strike as it works toward a third-quarter mineral resource, Power said Wednesday. Nisk is 55 km east of Nemaska in Quebec’s James Bay region.

Hole PML-26-094 cut 17.45 metres grading 4.43% copper, 7.07 grams palladium per tonne, 3.11 grams platinum, 0.53 gram gold and 23.76 grams silver per tonne, plus 0.23% nickel, from 134.6 metres downhole. Hole PML-26-101, drilled about 100 metres east, returned 39 metres grading 1.89% copper, 3.51 grams palladium, 3.34 grams platinum, 1.04 grams gold and 16.27 grams silver, plus 0.13% nickel, from 120 metres.

“The heart of Lion continues to deliver impressive results,” CEO Terry Lynch said in a release. “Both of these holes would have broken into our top six holes at the Lion Zone.”

Power Metallic’s Toronto-listed shares gained 10% Wednesday to $1.42, giving it a $329.3 million market capitalization.

Potential open pit

The Lion intersections are part of a zone that could become the front-end of a future mine plan. Power Metallic has previously identified part of the upper zone as a potential open pit. To get there, the company is funded for a 100,000-metre drill program this year and has $31 million (US$22.7 million) in cash as of last quarter.

The new assays extend a strong run at Lion. In March, hole PML-26-049 cut 16.55 metres from 147 metres downhole grading 10.08% copper, 5.54 grams palladium, 1.13 grams platinum, 1.64 grams gold and 47.4 grams silver, plus 0.42% nickel.

Power Metallic, backed by industry notables such as Gina Rinehart, Robert Friedland and Rob McEwen, called that result the best copper interval yet at Lion and said it could suit early open-pit extraction.

Last month, hole PML-26-050 returned 27.1 metres from 323 metres grading 0.59% copper, 0.8 gram palladium, 2.76 grams platinum, 0.13 gram gold and 4.09 grams silver, plus 0.08% nickel, including 4.76 metres of 2.67% copper, 4.09 grams palladium and 15.46 grams platinum.

Gathering momentum

Metallurgy adds more weight to the story and helps explain why the company keeps stressing recovered grades when it talks about copper-equivalent numbers. SGS test work released in January reported recoveries of 98.9% copper, 93.9% palladium, 96.8% platinum, 85% gold and 88.9% silver from representative Lion samples.

Power Metallic is working to turn Lion into a district-scale camp story with Nisk and the nearby Tiger project.

The infrastructure case is unusually strong for a James Bay junior: the project sits beside Route du Nord and across the road from a Hydro-Québec substation.

After buying 313 adjoining claims covering about 167 sq. km from Li-FT Power (TSXV: LIFT; US-OTC: LIFFF) last June and adding more ground through staking, Power Metallic expanded the project to about 330 sq. km. That gives it control of roughly 50 km of prospective basin margins and turned Lion from a single-zone discovery into a broader district play.