At the world's largest mining convention, Garibaldi Resources was there to show off their core, massive sulphide block, answer question from investors, and meet some larger companies/institutions.
I had chance to visit the booth at PDAC, speak with management and the geologists; spoke with them at length and I think that the company is on the right track to build this discovery out with continued drilling in 2019, which is fully funded with $15 million cash in the bank, and several million more potentially available with warrants coming in by October.
Remember, Garibaldi was hit severe lab delays, and my understanding is that the company still does not have all the results back from drilling completed from the 2018 season, but would expect them to report them once they are available. There are still 13 holes remaining, and several thousand meters. We know that several of these holes are coming from under the ice/crevasse zone (massive sulphide outcrop newly exposed last season).
So, all in all, there's lot of updates to come from Nickel Mountain, and if you read my blog post on Q3 financials, you'd know that the company spent money elsewhere, so I'd expect at some point the company will come out with some results from there as well.
Before we get into more... let's look at the most recent news release
The [February 21 NR] contains several key items, and instead of hearing it from me, I've taken, with permission, a post by Larry Hoover on a chatboard site and broken it down:
1. "The most important information is in the section/plan mapping. You may recall that I earlier criticized an angrygeo model for under-estimating the tonnage, primarily because the lower grades were significantly under-represented. In earlier and more conservative modeling by the company, the Upper and Lower Discovery Zones were separated by unmineralized rock, but now they are shown as fully continuous mineralization. "
"That dramatically boosts the tonnage, while simultaneously improving the mining economics, if this deposit becomes a mine in the future. All of the rock in that continuous mineralized zone would be treated as ore, simplifying the mining process because you would not have to manage internal zones of waste. Your focus is therefore directed at managing the external boundaries for the large mineralized zone."
2. "We learned about a number of purely exploratory holes surrounding the known mineralization. Had any of them hit reportable mineralization (greater than low-cut grade), that would have been pure serendipity. But not having reportable grades is not purely a negative outcome. You can't rule out mineralization in a large volume of previously unexplored rock with a single hole. Nickel exploration is a perfect application for borehole geophysics which can turn what appears to be a miss into a bullseye drillhole in the future. They continued drilling long after these holes were done, so I will know better what they learned from these specific holes, based on what they did later. "
3. "Hole 13 looked like a miss from the 2017 program, but it helped them drill off a lot more massive sulphides in the Discovery Zone to open the 2018 season. And now we learn, “Drill hole EL-18-29 was a 700-meter step-out to the southeast, targeting the center of the Anomaly F VTEM conductor. The hole intersected a thick sequence of volcanics with some sedimentary rocks. The sparse pyritic mineralization encountered would not explain the conductivity.” The great thing about exploring for massive sulphides is that they respond in borehole electromagnetic surveys. Something conductive was observed in aerial geophysics, and that something can be pinned down with in-ground geophysics, even though it wasn’t encountered in the recovered core. Hole 26 was collared adjacent to the adit, and encountered taxitic gabbro and disseminated sulphides (both associated with massive sulphides higher up the mountain). Holes 28 and 32 stepped out even further down the mountain (the so-called donkey pad (thanks Brent for taking the picture of it)). Hole 28 encountered melagabbro with trace sulphides at a depth very crudely 1.3 km from the pads at the summit. So, the intrusion has deep roots, and I’m sure BHEM will provide off-hole data for these holes as well. Lots of work for these lads to isolate drill targets for next year. "
4. "I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the drill data, which will include Hole 41, a hole that we already know encountered massive sulphides in the vicinity of the bedrock exposure (Crevasse Showing) adjacent to the glacier to the north. I’m also looking forward to seeing a 3D model of the mineralization, which should follow on from and include the remaining drill results. The idea that there are multiple stacked flat-lying sheets of massive sulphides strongly suggests that there may be similar beds beneath the ice. This is also consistent with the discovery of taxitic and variable-textured gabbro to the north and east of the glacier. Engineer showed me some Minfile data from a field program conducted in 2016. XRF results for samples encountered adjacent to the glacier include a number of results at about 13% copper. He plotted those on a map:
Not too shabby. Lots to look forward to, especially with all this new data to guide the drilling."
PDAC Photos & Commentary
Now, onto some cool photos from the Garibaldi core shack booth this year.
The original 390/400lb massive sulphide block was cut down, this is one of the pieces that formed out of that.
Expanded assay tables for EL-18-33 and EL-17-04
EL-18-33 corebox
EL-17-04 corebox
EL-18-04 corebox 2
390/400lb massive sulphide block cut down into a cube (now weighing 200lbs)
The top of the massive sulphide block.
Crevasse Zone!
We now have assays for this massive sulphide block, similar to discovery, over 7% nickel and 2% copper with PGEs and Gold as well.
EL-18-20 corebox
EL-18-20 corebox 2
Disclaimer:
The author is not a registered investment advisor, currently has a long position in this stock. The author has not been paid by anyone to write this article. All facts are to be checked by the reader. For more information go to www.garibaldiresources.com and read the company’s profile and official documents on www.sedar.com, also for important risk disclosures. This article is provided for information purposes only, and is not intended to be investment advice of any kind, and all readers are encouraged to do their own due diligence, and talk to their own licensed investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions.