Talon Metals successfully drilled 101.71 meters (333 feet) of high-grade nickel-copper mineralization at the Tamarack Nickel Project in Minnesota, grading 1.94% Ni; 1.84% Cu; 0.35 g/t Pd; 0.64 g/t Pt; and 0.62 g/t Au (1.61 g/t PGEt + Au) (3.04% NiEq).
The drill hole was completed in partnership with a research team from Columbia University that is funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Mining Innovations for Negative Emissions Resource Recovery (MINER) program that funds novel approaches to enhanced metal recoveries within the mining industry.
“Intercepting 101.71 meters (333 feet) of high-grade nickel-copper mineralization is a reminder of the uniqueness of the Tamarack Nickel Project’s US nickel resources,” said Henri van Rooyen, CEO of Talon. “Most projects aspire to intercept just 2 meters (6.6 feet) of high-grade nickel. The goal of this Columbia collaboration is to both add to our understanding of the ore body, while also supporting research aimed at recovering additional nickel, copper and other critical minerals used in clean energy systems.”
“One exciting aspect of this drill hole is that the copper and PGE grades are much higher than anticipated compared to the nickel grades, especially in the lower zone of mineralization where 12.4 meters assayed at 2.98% Ni, 3.84% Cu, 1.38 g/t Pd, 2.79 g/t Pt, and 2.68 g/t Au (6.85 g/t PGEt+Au),” said Brian Goldner, Chief Exploration Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Talon. “The exploration team is working to model this unusual area of fractionated mineralization to identify other areas within the resource it may be residing.”
Alan West, Professor of Chemical Engineering in Columbia’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the project’s Principal Investigator, remarked: “The Columbia Engineering team is very excited to partner with Talon and ARPA-e. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate and scale our processes aimed at improving the recovery of the critical materials that we need to transition energy systems and manufacturing to sustainable technologies, while also minimizing local environmental impacts of metals production.”
Talon’s CEO, Henri van Rooyen concluded: “Talon is taking a “full value mining” approach and harnessing innovation to understand how we can do mineral extraction in a better way. By working with top-notch US research and development institutions like Columbia University, we are hoping to deliver better outcomes that help the United States create secure domestic supplies of critical minerals for clean energy systems.”