Murchison shares surge on best results yet from central Quebec nickel project

Shares in Murchison Minerals (TSXV: MUR; US-OTC: MURMF) shot up 50% Tuesday on near-surface, high-grade drill results from its Haut-Plateau de la Manicouagan (HPM) nickel property in Quebec.

The explorer reported assay results from a single hole from its summer 2022 drilling program at the Barre de Fer (BDF) zone, located about 266 km north of Baie Comeau.

Cores from the BDF22-002 drill hole at the Barre de Fer zone in Murchison Minerals’ Haut-Plateau de la Manicouagan project in central Quebec. Murchison Minerals photo

The company noted that the hole is its best intersection to date at its wholly-owned HPM, which covers 576 sq. km.

In a release, Murchison president and CEO Troy Boisjoli said that the hole is among the world’s best nickel-sulphide intersections found at a pre-resource project in the last several years.

“Our HPM project is developing at a time when worldwide nickel demand is slated to increase significantly over the coming years,” he said. “The opportunity is compounded for Murchison by the fact there is significant pre-existing infrastructure like a maintained highway, rail, and available hydropower all within kilometers of our site.”

BDF22-002 went down 452 metres and intersected two broad zones of nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide bearing mineralization with a composite thickness of 175.15 metres.

The hole confirmed mineralization about 85 metres down dip from hole DH-151-02 and about 55 metres up dip from DH-151-05EX, with most mineralization intersected outside of the previously modeled zone.

The results also show strong correlation with nickel mineralization detected from portal x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) mapping of BDF22-002 from last April, the company said.

The summer exploration program at HPM consisted of 13 diamond drill holes of 4,316 metres, 10 of which were at BDF and three at the adjacent Syrah site. The Burlington-Ont.-based company expects to release an initial resource for HMP in the first quarter of next year.

Shares of Murchison Minerals were trading at 12¢ at noon in Toronto, down from its morning high of 15¢. The shares have traded in a 52-week window of 6¢ and 16¢, giving the company a market cap of $27.2 million.