Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 21, 2022) - Nicola Mining Inc. (TSXV: NIM) (FSE: HLI) (OTCQB: HUSIF) (the "Company" or "Nicola Mining") is pleased to announce that it has received a multi-year area-based exploration permit, Permit Number MX-4-697 (the "MYAB Permit[1]"), on November 3, 2022. The MYAB Permit allows Nicola to conduct extensive copper exploration on its wholly-owned New Craigmont Property (the "Property"), which is located adjacent to Teck Resources Ltd.'s Highland Valley Copper, Canada's largest copper mine, through to November 2, 2027.
New Craigmont is the site of the historic Craigmont Copper Mine, which produced approximately 34 million tonnes of copper at 1.3%, one of the highest-grade major copper mines in the history of North America. Despite the significant historic production, the 10,913-hectare site remains highly unexplored due to the original mine's sole focus on magnetite-associated copper skarn and depressed copper prices ($0.60 in 1982) at the time of closing. Technological advances in mining, as well as Nicola's success in consolidating fragmentated shareholder ownership[2] of the mineral claims and mining leases, have significantly augmented the Property's potential.
The Company has conducted drilling exploration since 2016 with several significant copper intercepts (Table 1), despite being limited to exploration within the Mine Permit (M-68).
Table 1: Examples of Key Drill Intercepts Since 2016
The MYAB Permit extends to the majority of the Property and encompasses the area of the recently completed Z-axis Tipper Electromagnetic ("ZTEM") survey, which Nicola announced completion in a news release on September 13, 2022. In addition, to the ZTEM survey, the Company recently completed an extensive soil sampling program to further clarify drilling target. Results from the soil program will be released upon receipt.
The MYAB Permit allows the Company to complete the following key exploration activities:
- Geophysical Survey with exposed electrodes
- 190 diamond drill holes
- 12 km of trenching/bulk sampling of 12 km [6 ha disturbance]
Peter Espig, CEO of Nicola, commented, "We are very grateful to the Ministry of Mining and support from First Nations for having received the MYAB Permit. The recently announced closing of our flow through financing on November 17, 2022 provides a critical first step towards unlocking the potential of the Property; operational revenues will allow continued progress while minimizing dilution. We look forward to providing investors with further clarity on an in-depth 2023 exploration program. (the "2023 Exploration Program")"
The 2023 Exploration Program will target a larger area and key targets previously unexplored by diamond drilling