In the first expansion drilling since 2015 on its Grasset deposit in the Abitibi greenstone belt of Quebec, Balmoral Resources (TSX: BAR; US-OTC: BALMF) has extended the known depth of the nickel, copper, cobalt and PGE deposit by several hundreds of metres.
The junior explorer reported this week that Grasset's H1 zone has now been intersected for 1,140 metres along strike and from the bedrock surface to a depth of 775 metres, while the deposit's broader H3 zone has been intersected for 700 metres along strike and to a vertical depth of about 620 metres.
The deposit remains open in all directions.
Drill hole GR-18-102A returned a 0.78 metre intercept grading 0.51% nickel, 0.002% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.07 gram platinum and 0.17 gram palladium from 751.30 metres downhole in the H3 zone.
The same hole returned an interval in the H1 zone of 14.15 metres grading 0.41% nickel, 0.04% copper, 0.01% cobalt, 0.07 gram platinum and 0.15 gram palladium starting 942 metres downhole, including a 0.51 metre intercept of 2.76% nickel, 0.15% copper, 0.05% cobalt, 0.40 gram platinum and 0.98 gram palladium.
Drill hole GR-18-05 also intersected both the H1 and H3 zones. The hole, the most northwesterly to test the deposit to date, returned a 3.10 metre intercept in the H1 zone of 1.49% nickel, 0.21% copper and 0.04% cobalt, 0.55 gram platinum and 0.83 gram palladium from 318 metres downhole - grades the company notes are almost identical to the current resource grade of the deposit from the H1 zone.
The high-grade core of Grasset currently hosts 3.45 million indicated tonnes grading 1.56% nickel, 0.17% copper, 0.03% cobalt, 0.34 gram platinum and 0.85 gram palladium to a vertical depth of just under 500 metres.
Other highlights from the most recent batch of assay results include 23.03 metres of 1.08% nickel, 0.12% copper, 0.03% cobalt, 0.20 gram platinum and 0.51 gram palladium from 537 metres downhole.
Balmoral discovered Grasset in 2013 and tabled a maiden resource in 2016.
At press time, Balmoral was trading at 15 ? per share within a 52-week trading range of 12 ? and 47.5 ? per share. The junior has about 139 million common shares outstanding for a market cap of about $21 million.