VANCOUVER, BC, April 26, 2021 /CNW/ - FPX Nickel Corp. (TSXV:
FPX) ("FPX" or the "Company") is pleased to
announce the initiation of a metallurgical pilot test program to
support the continued development of the Company's Baptiste Nickel
Project ("Baptiste" or the "Project") in central
British Columbia. This metallurgical program will be the
largest and most comprehensive program conducted to-date on
Baptiste mineralization, and is designed to validate and optimize
the flowsheet parameters outlined in the Company's September 2020 Preliminary Economic Assessment
("PEA").
"This year's bench- and pilot-scale metallurgical studies are
focused on confirming and improving upon the results of previous
bench-scale testing conducted in support of the 2020 PEA,"
commented Martin Turenne, FPX's
President and CEO. "We have identified opportunities to improve
several aspects of the metallurgical process at Baptiste which have
the potential to increase recoveries and/or lower processing costs,
and also to generate saleable iron and cobalt by-products which
could materially improve the Project's economics."
Background
The processing flowsheet developed for the PEA is based on
conventional grinding, magnetic separation and flotation processes
to produce a concentrate grading 63% nickel and 1% cobalt.
Previous testing and market evaluations have demonstrated that this
clean, high-grade nickel concentrate could be an excellent
feedstock for direct sale to end users in the stainless steel and
electric vehicle ("EV") battery sectors. The PEA
flowsheet also produces a magnetite-rich tailings stream which has
the potential to be sold or further valorized as a saleable iron
ore product. For the PEA, no by-product revenues were
recognized for the sale of this magnetite-rich iron ore product,
but the Company believes that further testing and market
evaluations could potentially support the inclusion of this product
stream into the Project's economics.
2021 Program
The overall objective of the 2021 metallurgical test program is
to support the eventual production of a Preliminary Feasibility
Study ("PFS") for the Project, with testing focused on
achieving the following:
- Confirm the PEA metallurgical results using materials
representative of the life-of-mine production
- Expand the grindability and comminution parameter database,
including conducting pilot-scale tests of the high-pressure
grinding rolls ("HPGR") circuit
- Confirming primary grade-recovery relationships defined by
previous test work
- Confirm and optimize flotation parameters and nickel
recoveries, and investigate possible improvements to the flotation
process design
- Producing sufficient high-grade nickel concentrate for
additional testing to produce nickel sulphate for the EV battery
market
- Conducting mineralogical and particle size evaluations of the
magnetite iron ore by-product to support further market evaluations
of this product stream
- Generating baseline data on tailings characterization and
settling characteristics to support the Company's strategy for
tailings management, including the potential for sequestration of
carbon dioxide in tailings
Testing will be conducted on approximately three tonnes of
representative drill core and coarse assay reject sample material,
drawn from deposit areas across all phases of the PEA life-of-mine
plan. The test program will be executed in multiple stages at
laboratories including ALS Metallurgy in Kamloops, British Columbia, Koeppern/UBC
facilities in Vancouver, SGS
Mineral Services in Lakefield,
Ontario and COREM Laboratories in Quebec City. The
Company expects to report on the results of the metallurgical
program in the third quarter of 2021.
Qualified Person
The metallurgical information in this news release has been
prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set
out in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosures for
Minerals Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI
43-101") and supervised, reviewed and verified by Jeffrey B. Austin, P.Eng., President of
International Metallurgical and Environmental Inc., a "Qualified
Person" as defined by NI 43-101 and the person who oversees
metallurgical developments for FPX Nickel.
About the Decar Nickel District
The Company's Decar Nickel District claims cover 245 square
kilometres of the Mount Sidney Williams ultramafic/ophiolite
complex, 90 km northwest of Fort St.
James in central British
Columbia. The District is a two-hour drive from Fort St. James on a high-speed logging
road.
Decar hosts a greenfield discovery of nickel mineralization in
the form of a naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy called
awaruite, which is amenable to bulk-tonnage, open-pit mining.
Awaruite mineralization has been identified in four target areas
within this ophiolite complex, being the Baptiste Deposit, the B
target, the Sid target and Van target, as confirmed by drilling in
the first three plus petrographic examination, electron probe
analyses and outcrop sampling on all four. Since 2010,
approximately US $24 million has been
spent on the exploration and development of Decar.
Of the four targets in the Decar Nickel District, the Baptiste
Deposit, which was initially the most accessible and had the
biggest known surface footprint, has been the main focus of diamond
drilling since 2010, with a total of 82 holes and over 31,000
metres of drilling completed. The Sid target was tested with
two holes in 2010 and the B target had a single hole drilled into
it in 2011; all three holes intersected nickel-iron alloy
mineralization over wide intervals with DTR nickel grades
comparable to the Baptiste Deposit. The Van target was not
drill-tested at that time as rock exposure was very poor prior to
logging activity by forestry companies.
As reported in the current NI 43-101 resource estimate, having
an effective date of September 9,
2020, the Baptiste Deposit contains 1.996 billion tonnes of
indicated resources at an average grade of 0.122% DTR nickel,
containing to 2.4 million tonnes of nickel, plus 593 million tonnes
of inferred resources with an average grade of 0.114% DTR nickel,
containing 0.7 million tonnes of nickel, both reported at a cut-off
grade of 0.06% DTR nickel. Mineral resources are not mineral
reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.
About FPX Nickel Corp.
FPX Nickel Corp. is focused on the exploration and development
of the Decar Nickel District, located in central British Columbia, and other occurrences of the
same unique style of naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy
mineralization known as awaruite. For more information, please view
the Company's website at www.fpxnickel.com or contact Martin Turenne, President and CEO, at (604)
681-8600 or ceo@fpxnickel.com.
On behalf of FPX Nickel Corp.
"Martin Turenne"
Martin Turenne, President, CEO and
Director
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain of the
statements made and information contained herein is considered
"forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable
Canadian securities laws. These statements address future events
and conditions and so involve inherent risks and uncertainties, as
disclosed in the Company's periodic filings with Canadian
securities regulators. Actual results could differ from those
currently projected. The Company does not assume the obligation to
update any forward-looking statement.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of
this release.
SOURCE FPX Nickel Corp.