The company said the deepest hole yet at Pipestone XL stepped out 445 meters south at Alloy Max and ended in mineralization, extending a target area it says remains open at depth.
First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp. said drill hole XL-26-16 at the Alloy Max Zone intersected large-grain, visibly disseminated awaruite (naturally occurring nickel-iron-cobalt alloy) over its full 525-meter drilled length and ended in mineralization. The hole, drilled about 445 meters south of discovery hole XL-26-15, is the deepest completed so far at the wholly owned Pipestone XL Nickel-Cobalt Alloy Project in central Newfoundland. The company said awaruite was visible from just below about 9 meters of overburden to the bottom of the hole, with visual abundance and grain size increasing downhole, and that the zone remains open at depth. Together, XL-26-15 and XL-26-16 have now confirmed about 445 meters of strike within an approximately 4 km Alloy Max target area and about 285 meters of lateral width, leaving most of the zone untested along strike and at depth. First Atlantic also said core logging suggests coarser awaruite is associated with lower-magnetic altered ultramafic rock, prompting a reinterpretation of regional magnetic data that it believes could expand the footprint of both Alloy Max and the RPM Zone. The company described Alloy Max as its second large-scale awaruite zone after RPM and said drilling is continuing from additional pads.