Nicola Mining completes successful drilling at Craigmont and extends mining lease

Many young exploration companies are in possession of an interesting project. But only a few already have a completed, operational mill. Nicola Mining (TSX.V: NIM, FSE: HLIA, WKN: A14T7S) is one of these few companies, as it owns the fully permitted Merritt mill. It can process both gold and silver ore using gravity and flotation processes.

Another special feature of this mill is that it is the only facility in the province of British Columbia that can and is authorised to process ore from other companies in the province. This makes Nicola Mining an important contact for other companies and, unlike many other explorers and mine developers, it has the opportunity to generate regular income from processing its own and third-party ore while it is still searching for new deposits.

This advantage cannot be overestimated at present, as liquidity and the generation of fresh capital to continue their own activities are currently the biggest challenges for many companies in the industry. Nicola Mining is currently feeding the Merritt mill with ore supplied by Talisker Resources. As this ore contains free gold, Nicola has put its gravity separator back into operation for production. The extracted gold concentrate is currently being stockpiled and prepared for later sale. E is expected to begin in September.

Nicola Mining continues to land interesting hits at Craigmont this year

A new exploration phase has begun on the Craigmont copper project. It is the first phase of the 2024 drilling programme and focuses on the West Craigmont WP target, which has never been drilled before. Around 1,500 of the total planned 5,000 metres of drilling have already been completed.

With the drill holes, Nicola Mining hopes to establish a framework for the subsurface geology and reconcile the geophysical anomalies with the geological features. This is all done with the goal of refining the orientation of a potential porphyry copper system in the region.

The initial results are helping to delineate the Nicola-Guichon contact and local structures. The observed alteration and mineralisation are encouraging and consistent with expectations for the edge of a porphyry system. Of particular interest are the altered fault blocks that host quartz-sericite-pyrite and chalcopyrite, supporting the need for additional drilling in this target area.

Thick mineralisation intersected

Significant pyrite mineralisation with trace chalcopyrite was intersected in drill hole WP-24-001 between 59.6 and 108.0 metres depth. The hole was designed to test the largest IP anomaly in the area. It was only discovered during the IP surveys conducted this year.

Hole WP-24-002 also targeted a relatively shallow IP anomaly and intersected a similar faulted zone of mineralisation as WP-24-001, again encountering pyrite and chalcopyrite mineralisation in sericite-quartz altered Nicola volcanics from 47.1 to 100.9 metres depth.

Drill hole WP-24-003 was drilled at a shallow angle to further test the largest IP anomaly already targeted by WP-24-001. This hole encountered fault-hosted pyrite and chalcopyrite intersections at depths ranging from 298.8 to 316.3 metres and 358.9 to 365.4 metres.

Once drill hole WP-24-004A is completed, the second phase of the 2024 drill programme is likely to commence. This will include drilling on the MARB-CAS target. This target was identified through bedrock mapping and surface geological observations, with some input from geophysical modelling. The planned drilling is aimed at developing a framework for the subsurface geology and evaluating the mineralisation potential beneath the MARB deposit.

Mining lease on Treasure Mountain extended

Last but not least, Nicola Mining announced that it has received a ten-year extension for its mining lease at Treasure Mountain. The Treasure Mountain mine is located approximately 27 km east-northeast of Hope in the province of British Columbia and is 100 per cent owned by the company. Treasure Mountain consists of a total of 30 mineral claims totalling 2178.3 hectares and a 335 hectare mining lease. The extension of the mining lease is valid until 26 April 2032.

The Treasure Mountain Mine was first discovered in 1892 and has been operated intermittently since its discovery. From 1930 to 1932, around 4,000 tonnes were processed on site, yielding 39,558 ounces of silver, 379,532 pounds of lead and 88,455 pounds of zinc. Between 1987 and 1989, the mine was developed on four levels and 407 tonnes of partially sorted material was delivered to the Cominco and Asarco smelters.

A permit to extract 60,000 tonnes of ore from the Treasure Mountain mine has been in place since May 18, 2012 and the extension of the permit provides Nicola Mining with the opportunity to reopen Treasure Mountain. Should new mineralised ore bodies be discovered, the reopening of the mine could be accelerated.

A NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate from June 2009 certified the project as containing 33,000 tonnes of ore at 24.2 ounces per tonne silver, 4.16% lead and 3.80% zinc. The total inferred resource of the vein above a cut-off grade of 10.0 ounces per tonne silver was estimated at 120,000 tonnes at 27.0 ounces per tonne silver, 2.79% lead and 4.36% zinc. A reopening of the mine is therefore a possible scenario for Nicola Mining to consider.