West Pickle Lake JV (Ni, Cu, PGMs)

At a glance

  • Held in JV with highly active regional explorer GT Resources (previously Palladium One)

  • High grade nickel sulphide discovery

  • Possible extension onto First Class Metal’s wholly-owned North Hemlo project

(Click image to enlarge)

Project overview

The Pickle Lake Project area comprises 33 single cell mining claims covering 700 hectares on the Eastern flank of First Class Metal’s flagship, 100%-owened North Hemlo Project in Ontario.

The project contains a large, 600-long soil/VTEM anomaly known as “West Pickle Lake” is proximal to identified nickel anomalies. These include GT Resources RJ and Smoke Lake projects as well as its Tyko showing.

In July 2021, First Class secured a joint venture with Palladium One (GT Resources), giving the latter the option to earn-in to an 80% interest in the claims subject to a three-year work programme commitment.

To earn-in, GT Resources must incur Canadian Exploration Expenses as follows:

  • Year 1 - an amount of not less than C$25,000 on or before the 1st anniversary of the Effective Date:

  • Year 2 - an amount of not less than C$135,000 (for an aggregate amount of $160,000) on or before the second anniversary of the Effective Date to earn a 51% interest; and

  • Year 3 - an amount of not less than C$165,000 (for an aggregate amount of not less than $325,000) and by preparing a National Instrument 43-101 (“NI43-101”) Technical Report with respect to the Earn-In Properties on or before the third anniversary of the Effective Date to earn an additional 29% (for a total aggregate 80% interest).

Progress so far

In September 2022, Palladium One identified a new high-grade nickel sulphide zone on West Pickle Lake that remains open in multiple directions. 

The West Pickle Lake discovery is interpreted to be an extension of the RJ showing, located 2.7 kilometres to the east along a potential feeder dyke system. This has returned up to 1.04% Ni and 0.23% Cu over 16.2m. 

Meanwhile, the discovery’s lithology and mineralisation closely resemble those found at the company’s Smoke Lake, RJ, and Tyko zones. Palladium One and First Class believe that these together form a new nickel district highlighted by a very robust east-west trending nickel sulphide mineralising system that currently extends for more than 20km.

Following initial discovery, Palladium One released a series of exceptionally high-grade assays for holes drilled into the West Pickle Lake discovery.

Highlights include:

  • Hole TK-22-060, which included 0.97% Nickel Equivalent ("Ni Eq") over 12.6 meters (0.72% Ni, 0.34% Cu, 0.02% Co, 0.14g/t Total Precious Metals ("TPM") (Pt+Pd+Au) in massive and disseminated sulphide.

    • Including 3.94% Ni Eq over 2.4 meters (3.18% Ni, 0.99% Cu, 0.06% Co, 0.39g/t TPM)

    • Including 8.68% Ni Eq over 0.5 metres (7.60% Ni, 1.25% Cu, 0.12% Co, 0.41g/t TPM)

  • Hole TK-22-070, which reported 3.1% Nickel Equivalent (“Ni Eq”) over 10.1 meters (2.5% Ni, 1.0% Cu, 0.03% Co, 0.26 g/t Total Precious Metals (“TPM”) (Pt+Pd+Au)) in massive and disseminated sulphide in hole TK-22-070

    • Including 12.8% Ni Eq over 2.3 metres (10.4% Ni, 3.4% Cu, 0.14% Co, 0.92 g/t TPM)

    • Including 15.0% Ni Eq over 0.9 metres (12.9% Ni, 2.7% Cu, 0.16% Co, 1.05 g/t TPM)

Massive nickel-copper sulphides in drill core from West Pickle Lake, drill hole TK22-059

Next steps

To date a total of 32 holes, totalling 6,766 meters. have been drilled in the vicinity of the West Pickle Lake Discovery. The drilling continues to expand the strike of the mineralisation, which has so far been defined over more than 600 meters of strike length.

With the discovery remaining open into the west, First Class will examine the possibility that the discovery continues onto its 100%-owned North Hemlo project area with further exploration in 2023.

Images

West Pickle Lake area showing the potential for extension to the east and west on to the FCM property