Fathom Announces Receipt of New Exploration Permit and Commencement of Field Activities at the Gochager Lake Project
June 20, 2024 (Source) — Fathom Nickel Inc. (CSE: FNI) (FSE: 6Q5) (OTCQB: FNICF) (the “Company” or “Fathom“) is pleased to announce the recent receipt of all necessary permits to continue exploration activity at the Company’s Gochager Lake project. The exploration permit allows the Company to:
- Drill up to 60 drillholes.
- Construct and utilize an all season 25-person camp.
- Utilize temporary “fly camps” during summer-fall field season to conduct site specific, airborne geophysical anomaly follow-up, mapping and prospecting, soil geochemistry, and site-specific geophysical surveys.
- To do necessary line-cutting ahead of surface geophysical surveys.
- Prepare necessary ground and ice trails to facilitate the movement of drilling equipment.
- The new exploration permit is valid for a two-year period, expiring July 31, 2026.
In addition, we are also pleased to report that exploration field activities have commenced at the Gochager Lake project. Field crews were mobilized last week and will be utilizing a temporary fly camp located at the Gochager Lake deposit area to conduct:
- A soil geochemical survey within the area outlined in Figure 1. The Company is confident we can define a soil geochemical signature associated with the Gochager Lake deposit and utilize this signature to expand Gochager and find additional Gochager-like deposits.
- Detailed mapping, prospecting and soil geochemical sampling will occur in areas of conductivity defined through surface time domain electromagnetic surveys (“TDEM”) performed in 2023-2024 (Figure 2). The team will focus on identifying and mapping the strike extent of the favourable gabbro host-rock and defining other favourable gabbro rock outside of the historic deposit area.
- Flying a detailed drone-MAG survey (30-meter line spacing) over the historic Gochager Lake deposit area depicted in Figure 3. The total MAG survey will encompass approximately 385 line-km.
- Field crews are expected to complete the field program by June 30, 2024.
Ian Fraser, CEO and VP Exploration stated, “We are very pleased to now have the exploration permit in hand. Having completed 16 successful drillholes in little more than a year, this two-year permit is the next step in our exploration plan to aggressively drill the historic Gochager Lake deposit and to continue to expand the deposit to depth and along strike. We expect that camp construction will begin in the coming weeks.”
Mr. Fraser continued, “There is very good geophysical evidence that the Gochager Lake deposit is potentially only the first of several magmatic nickel sulphide deposits occurring within the 22,000-hectare Gochager Lake property. Our international geophysical team have identified 13 high priority targets through the re-interpretation of the 2008 VTEM survey. During the current program, the field crews will systematically map and prospect the deposit area to further enhance our understanding of the geological, structural, geophysical and geochemical signatures of the Gochager Lake deposit. The knowledge gained from this exercise will be invaluable as we progress our exploration efforts outwards from the deposit area and start to assess the 13 other high priority targets. We are very confident that the high-resolution drone-MAG survey, combined with field mapping, will define the extent of the mineralized gabbro unit that is host to the zones of high-grade nickel mineralization along strike beyond our current drilling. Knowing the extent and the boundaries of the host gabbro unit will be critical as we prepare for a late summer/early fall drill program. We are also confident the MAG survey will map other zones of gabbro within the survey area”.
The drone-MAG survey will provide much higher resolution MAG data in comparison to the VTEM survey completed in 2008. Drone-MAG data will be flown at 30m line spacing compared to 100-200m VTEM line spacing. The Drone-MAG data will be collected from approximately 30-35 meters above surface compared to 60-65m collection height of the 2008 VTEM data. The Company has awarded the contract to Tuzo Geosurveys and looks forward to working with and interpreting this high-resolution data set in the historic Gochager Lake deposit area. We are confident this type of survey will prove very useful in our quest to define the extent of the gabbro host-rock at the Gochager deposit as well as, going forward, discover other magmatic nickel sulphide deposits within the 22,000-hectare Gochager Lake property. High-resolution data provides a clearer picture of the magnetic properties of the various intrusive rocks at Gochager and we expect to better define the magnetic properties associated with the high-grade Ni-Cu-Co bearing semi-massive to massive sulphides we have intersected by drilling.
Figure 1 – Gochager Lake Property Map, 2024 Field Activity Map
To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/7843/213705_13279f5a64ab9b6a_001full.jpg
Figure 2 – Fathom 2023-2024 TDEM Survey Area
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https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/7843/213705_13279f5a64ab9b6a_002full.jpg
Figure 2 Notes:
- The Tilt Derivative is a mathematical function routinely applied to magnetic field data to preferentially enhance weaker magnetic signals to map textures, structures, and edge contacts of magnetic sources.
- The yellow polygon depicted in Figure 2 illustrates the location of the historic Gochager Lake deposit. Fathom has defined continuity of the prospective mineralized gabbro, and zones of high-grade Ni-Cu-Co mineralization along strike 230m, and to a depth of 400m.
- Drillhole GL23011, located approximately 350m northeast of the deposit area, intersected mineralized gabbro with anomalous Ni-Cu-Co and, importantly, detected significant off-hole BHEM anomalies.
- The TDEM survey(s) (yellow, blue dots) recognized conductivity associated with:
- The historic Gochager Lake deposit.
- Along strike to the northeast of the deposit area towards GL23011.
- Discrete areas of conductivity to the north and northwest of the deposit.
- Significant, and several areas of conductivity to the south and southwest of the deposit.
- The area to the southwest coincides with a fold hinge, or closure as defined by the Tilt Mag Derivative. Structural traps: in this case an interpreted fold hinge, provide excellent mechanisms to trap and concentrate magmatic sulphides.
Field crews will map, prospect and increase the density of soil sampling within these zones of conductivity.
Figure 3 – Tuzo Geosurveys Drone-MAG Survey Area
To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/7843/213705_13279f5a64ab9b6a_003full.jpg
Qualified Person and Data Verification
Ian Fraser, P.Geo., CEO, VP Exploration and a Director of the Company and the “qualified person” as such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101, has verified the data disclosed in this news release, and has otherwise reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release on behalf of the Company.
About Fathom Nickel Inc.
Fathom is an exploration company that is targeting magmatic nickel sulphide discoveries to support the rapidly growing global electric vehicle market.
The Company now has a portfolio of two high-quality exploration projects located in the prolific Trans Hudson Corridor in Saskatchewan: 1) the Albert Lake Project, a 90,000+ hectare project that was host to the historic and past producing Rottenstone deposit (produced high-grade Ni-Cu+PGE, 1965-1969), and 2) the 22,000+ hectare Gochager Lake Project that is host to a historic, NI43-101 non-compliant open pit resource consisting of 4.3M tons at 0.295% Ni and 0.081% Cu1.
1 – The Saskatchewan Mineral Deposit Index (SMID#0880) reports drill indicated reserves at the historic Gochager Lake Deposit of 4,262,400 tons grading 0.295% Ni and 0.081% Cu mineable by open pit. Fathom cannot confirm the resource estimate, nor the parameters and methods used to prepare the reserve estimate. The estimate is not considered NI43-101 compliant and further work is required to verify this historical drill indicated reserve.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Ian Fraser, CEO & Vice President Exploration
1-403-650-9760
Email: [email protected]
or
Matthew Mickleborough, Investor Relations
1-306-531-3644
Email: [email protected]
Forward-Looking Statements:
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