On the New Craigmont copper project, Nicola Mining (TSX.V: NIM, FSE: HLI, WKN: A14T7S) is beginning new exploration drilling these days. Past exploration work on the flagship project, located near the city of Merritt in the Canadian province of British Columbia, has identified five priority targets. Three of them will be investigated in more detail in the coming weeks as part of the work now beginning.
The exploration work was preceded by intensive collaboration with ALS Geoanalytics. Using AI-based methods to analyze and correlate geophysical and geochemical data from Nicola’s extensive exploration database, the most promising exploration targets were thus identified.
Target A largely corresponds to the West Craigmont/WP target area. Several boreholes were drilled here in 2024. They confirm favorable alteration with potential for further drilling. While Target A was thus a familiar one, Target B is a new, previously undrilled target identified through Goldspot’s analysis.
Target C, in turn, corresponds to the MARB/CAS target area, which has become a priority target due to the positive results of the 2024 exploration program. Target D corresponds to the important Titan Queen MINFILE occurrence. Historical drilling and mapping from 2016 and later are available for this part of the project. They support further drilling. As an entirely new target area, Target E was included in the 2025 exploration program following the Goldspot analysis.
Nicola Mining and ALS GoldSpot Will Fine-Tune the Drilling Program Based on the New Data in the Coming Weeks
The successful collaboration between GoldSpot and Nicola Mining will continue in the coming months to refine the 2025 exploration program and develop a better understanding of the deposits. X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) measurements will also be used. GoldSpot will process and evaluate the data obtained. Nicola Mining expects that the deeper understanding of the geology will lead to new insights and new exploration targets.
For the 2025 exploration program, core drilling with a total length of 4,000 to 5,000 meters is planned in the MARB/CAS, West Craigmont/WP areas and the two new target areas identified by ALS GoldSpot. A potential porphyry copper system in New Craigmont is being investigated. A budget of 1.5 to two million Canadian dollars is planned for the drilling, which is scheduled to be completed in September.
A Multi-Element Analysis is Intended to Bring other Interesting Metals to the Forefront in Addition to Copper
Nicola Mining expects that the new drill cores will provide valuable information about lithology, structure, alteration, and mineralization. The focus will not only be on the main element copper, but a multi-element analysis will be conducted. This could lead to elements that are not currently in the spotlight being brought more to the forefront in later work.
In the MARB target zone, the drilling aims at a near-surface porphyry-like copper mineralization. The boreholes are designed to investigate a vertical mineralization trend at depth. The near-surface structure discovered at CAS in 2024 is characteristic of the mineralization observed in the Embayment Zone. However, Nicola Mining still needs to clarify whether the trends encountered at MARB and CAS continue in the space between these two deposits. The 2025 drilling program has therefore been designed to be able to answer this question as well.
Last but not least, the Draken deposit, a priority target that has not yet been drilled, will be examined more closely with drilling for the first time. This zone, which contains outcrops of quartz diorite from the Guichon border phase, was discovered in 2023. The soil samples taken at Draken show some of the best-developed porphyry-like alterations documented on the New Craigmont project. This impression is confirmed by the geophysical signals. They indicate high resistivity and high chargeability.
This is good news for invested shareholders. It not only opens up the possibility of a positive news flow during the summer months but also gives reason for the justified hope that Nicola Mining will have a much better understanding of the project’s geology by the end of the year.
