Lac Rocher drilling hits nickel, copper

Results from five more holes drilled by Nuinsco Resources (NWI-T) at its Lac Rocher project in Quebec sent the company’s share price tumbling even as they confirmed additional nickel and copper mineralization.

Four of the five holes intersected disseminated-to-massive sulphides with grades ranging from 0.7% to 1.48% nickel over core lengths of 4.9 to 66.3 metres. The results were comparable to the 61.5 metres grading 1.5% nickel that shot Nuinsco shares past $3 at the end of January, but over the space of two days the results cut the price to 98 cents from a level of $1.74 before the release.

The highest-grade intersection came in hole 99-06, which was drilled vertically to intersect the lower contact of the host gabbro body near the location of the mineralization in hole 99-01. The new vertical hole cut 2.6 metres grading 11.24% nickel and 0.76% copper, part of an overall mineralized intersection of 47 metres grading 1.59% nickel and 0.6% copper. The new intersection is southwest of, and below, the mineralization cut in 99-01.

Another vertical hole drilled on the same line, 99-07, encountered 11.3 metres grading 1.05% nickel and 0.22% copper farther up in the intrusion. In hole 99-09, collared 50 metres northwest of 99-06, a 66.3-metre section averaged 0.7% nickel and 0.28% copper, including a 10.9-metre interval that graded 1.08% nickel and 0.45% copper.

Hole 99-05, drilled vertically from a collar about 50 metres southeast of 99-06, intersected 4.9 metres grading 1.48% nickel and 0.74% copper. Hole 99-08, 25 metres southwest of 99-05 and also drilled vertically, intersected only the granitic gneiss marginal to the intrusion.

Nine other holes have been drilled, and samples are out for assay. Most of these holes have targeted the down-plunge projection of the mineralized zones discovered in earlier drilling, and have intersected either massive or disseminated sulphides.

Nuinsco has already run pulse-electromagnetic surveys down two of the new holes, 99-17 and 99-18, both of which were drilled on a grid line 100 metres southeast of the discovery hole. Those surveys detected a conductive body, probably centred a further 100 metres to the southeast, which is also being drilled in the current program. Nuinsco’s current thinking is that the conductor, which lies southwest of the presumed trend of the known mineralization, may be a sulphide body offset from the rest of the mineralization by a fault.

Nuinsco’s February financing, which netted the company just under $10 million, has allowed its president, Douglas Hume, to look at the market gyrations philosophically. “This is an exploration program,” he tells The Northern Miner. “We’re not drilling off an orebody that’s been defined . . . one shouldn’t be jumping out of windows.”