First Cobalt drilling traces broad cobalt mineralisation at Woods Extension Zone

5th April 2018 By: Henry Lazenby - Creamer Media Deputy Editor: North America

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Explorer First Cobalt has reported the results from its latest two drill holes from the Woods Extension zone of the Cobalt South project, in the Ontario-based Canadian Cobalt Camp, returning strong grades over narrow intervals.

The reported results were fairly shallow tests of the Woods Extension vein, which could demonstrate some of the best potential in the Cobalt South area.

Cobalt has now been identified in two different structures at relatively shallow depths, comprising hole FCC-18-0015 that encountered 0.47% cobalt and 0.5% copper over 0.65 m. The hole was part of the east-west trending zone north of the 2017 holes and identified cobalt within a 25 m zone of chlorite-epidote altered and brecciated mafic volcanic rocks, hosting disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite. The orientation of the cobalt mineralisation has not yet been confirmed and could represent either an offset of the Woods vein, or perhaps be part of the Beaver Lake vein.

Hole FCC-18-0020 encountered 0.77% cobalt and 2.67% nickel over 0.3 m. The mineralisation occurs as cobalt/nickel bearing carbonate veins associated with interpreted fault structures. The hole was drilled north into sheared, altered volcanics hosting cobalt in a distinct calcite vein. This hole was expected to encounter a fault structure that truncated the Woods-Watson veins.

The company advised that more work is required to define a bona fide zone, since the breccia zones and faults represent a complex structural setting that warrants further drilling.

First Cobalt added that cobalt mineralisation continues to be encountered 250 m north of historic Frontier mine workings, in an area not previously drilled.

"Follow-up work continues, including downhole geophysical surveys and televiewer imaging to determine a possible orientation of the breccia zone and faults. Additional drilling is planned later in the year, the company stated.

"The key objective of the 2018 exploration programme is to identify potential targets in the Cobalt Camp that could be amenable to openpit mining,” president and CEO Trent Mell said in a statement.

On March 14, First Cobalt announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire explorer US Cobalt. The all-scrip deal will see all US Cobalt shares exchanged for First Cobalt shares, at a ratio of 1.5 First Cobalt shares for each US Cobalt share held. The deal represented a premium of 61.8% to US Cobalt’s closing price on the TSX at the time of the announcement, and implied an equity value of about C$150-million.

First Cobalt owns a portfolio of about 50 historic mines over 10 000 ha in Ontario, while US Cobalt owns the Iron Creek cobalt project in Idaho. First Cobalt also owns a mill and the only permitted cobalt refinery in North America capable of producing battery materials, according to the company.