Nickel Mountain Massive Sulphides Mount Up
Vancouver, British Columbia, September 24, 2018 – Garibaldi Resources (TSXV: GGI; OTC: GGIFF) is pleased to announce that assays from the first holes of the continuing drill program at its 100%-owned Nickel Mountain Project in the Eskay Camp have confirmed wide intervals of near-surface nickel-copper-rich sulphide mineralization, also including cobalt, platinum, palladium, gold and silver, in all directions surrounding the 2017 Discovery zone.
Drilling in the coming days will step out as much as 1.3 kilometers northeast of the Discovery zone to target a potential major expansion of the Golden Triangle’s first magmatic nickel-copper-rich sulphide system. With three drill rigs at Nickel Mountain, 11 miles southwest of the Eskay Creek mine, Garibaldi continues to build out the Discovery zone while stepping out aggressively in all directions.
Drilling highlights (assayed holes):
EL-18-22, collared 186 meters (m) west-southwest of EL-17-14, intersected 12.5 m @ 4.3% Ni and 2.7% Cu plus 3 additional mineralized zones (21 m, 28.7 m and 11.4 m) within the first 150 m (extends the massive sulphide zone 42 m west-southwest of EL-17-14 massive sulphide zone)
EL-18-20, collared 75 m west of EL-17-14, intersected 30.5 m @ 3.1% Ni and 1.9% Cu including 8.4 m @ 7.8% Ni and 3.3% Cu (extends the massive sulphide zone 20 m west of EL-17-14)
EL-18-19, collared 75 m west of EL-17-14, intersected 34.9 m @ 2.0% Ni and 1.6% Cu including 5.7 m @ 7.3% Ni and 5.1% Cu (extends the massive sulphide zone 14 m west-southwest of EL-17-14)
EL-18-16, collared 76 m west of Discovery Hole EL-17-14, intersected 34.1 m @ 2.4% Ni and 1.5% Cu including 7.4 m @ 7.9% Ni and 3.9% Cu (extends the massive sulphide zone 50 m southeast of EL-17-14)
Melting Icefield Exposes Massive Sulphides North Of Discovery Zone
The peak of the summer ice melt has exposed a “ring” of never previously seen Nickel Mountain mineralization including massive sulphide outcrops and a massive sulphide boulder train around the receding margins of the E&L icefield, which is up to 1.6 km long and up to 1 km wide, immediately adjacent to the Discovery and Northwest zones. Significantly, geologists have also identified variable textured gabbro (taxite, a key indicator) outcropping at the northern edge of the icefield, coincident with an encouraging VTEM geophysical signature and 1,300 m from EL-17-14. Sampling and mapping of these important new surface discoveries continues. Drilling will test the possibility that this very broad area untested beneath the ice hosts nickel-copper-rich sulphide mineralization at depth.
Steve Regoci, President and CEO of Garibaldi, commented: “The potential scale of the Nickel Mountain system, and the high grades and metal tenors confirmed within the growing footprints of the Discovery zone-Northwest zone corridor, continue to excite our team of nickel sulphide experts. We’ve already more than doubled last year’s total meters drilled (8,000 m vs. 3,671 m, drilling of hole #36 is now in progress) and we’ve started the process of stepping out dramatically in multiple directions from the Discovery zone to follow both the geology and our state-of-the-art geophysics data from borehole EM and VTEM.
“We now expect a steady flow of results and a very exciting fourth quarter as drilling extends deep into the season to capitalize on the growing opportunity for new discoveries. Geologists are targeting the mineralized ‘throat’ areas of an extensive magmatic system. Our current working capital position is very strong at $20 million,” Regoci concluded.
Dynamic Magmatic Sulphide System With Deep Roots
Dr. Peter Lightfoot, one of the world’s premier nickel sulphide experts and Garibaldi’s technical advisor, commented: “The strong endowment of the massive and disseminated sulphide mineralization at Nickel Mountain is directly related to olivine gabbros that exhibit an unusual variable texture in drill core and outcrop. These rocks are grouped as taxites. A 3D geological model for the mineral zones and the host rocks is evolving as drilling and surface mapping uncovers more information to anchor the geometry of the contacts and the structures that offset the Intrusion.
“It is now clear that the E&L Nickel Mountain Intrusion comprises at least three structurally offset segments, and all three contain disseminated and massive sulphide mineralization. Moreover, petrological and geochemical investigations of the taxitic gabbros indicate that the roots of the Intrusion extend at least 462 meters beneath the E&L, where EL-18-18 intersected taxitic gabbro from 421.1 to 462.5 m, and more widely within the Nickel Mountain Gabbro Complex extending well beyond the Discovery zone.
“There is strong evidence for an open-system emplacement history through ‘magma highways from the mantle’, indicating a mineralizing event of considerable scale with nickel grades in massive sulphides that are in the very top echelon,” Dr. Lightfoot concluded.
Everett Makela, Garibaldi VP-Exploration, stated: “Of particular importance is the recognition of the taxites, variable textured olivine gabbros, as the productive rock units of the Intrusion. Identification of this conduit architecture has been fundamental to our exploration success. The discovery of outcrops of melagabbros with taxitic textures 1.3 km to the northeast on the edge of the receding glacier, and massive sulphide boulders located along the glacier margins, speak to the potential of greatly expanding the scale of this fertile environment as we know it.”