First Metals to go underground at Fabie

The province of Quebec has issued a permit to First Metals (FMA-T) to extract a 50,000-tonne bulk sample from the Fabie Bay copper deposit in northwestern Quebec, allowing quick feasibility work on the project.

First Metals, which took over Fabie and the nearby Magusi River projects from Globex Mining Enterprises (GMX-T), is hoping to put both mineral deposits into production to catch the current cycle in the metal markets. Both have drill-established resources, Fabie with an inferred resource of 673,000 tonnes grading 2.77% copper and Magusi with separate zones, one of 1.2 million tonnes grading 7.1% zinc and the other 839,000 tonnes at 3.3% copper.

There was considerable feasibility work on both projects under earlier operators. Fabie has a decline to about 135 metres vertical depth in place, which will allow both sampling and further underground drilling to raie the resource to the indicated and measured categories. First Metals’ recent surface drilling at Fabie confirmed the results of historical drilling.

First Metals acquired the projects from Globex for $1 million and a 10% stake in the company. Globex also has a royalty and a net-profit interest.