Canada's First Atlantic Commences Pit Excavation at Pipestone XL Nickel Project

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 29, Canada's First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt confirmed that the Pipestone XL nickel-cobalt project in central Newfoundland and Labrador has commenced permitted pit excavation work at the RPM mineralized zone, while advancing construction of an all-season exploration access road. Three excavators, two dump trucks and one bulldozer have been deployed to the site; overburden and weathered bedrock removed during excavation are being used for road fill, and newly exposed bedrock at the pit bottom will be sampled and tested for natural nickel-iron alloy mineralization.

The pit is located north of the existing drilling area at the RPM mineralized zone and north of drill hole AN-25-13. This area exhibits moderate magnetic anomaly characteristics in the airborne total magnetic intensity survey. First Atlantic plans to obtain bedrock samples directly through pit excavation to test for natural nickel-iron alloy mineralization and, together with existing drilling results, to evaluate the northward extension of the RPM mineralized zone.

Thirteen drill holes have previously been completed at the RPM mineralized zone, delineating a mineralized strike length of more than 1.2 km and a width of more than 800 m. Visible natural nickel-iron alloy mineralization was found in all completed drill holes, with positive test results for magnetically recoverable nickel. The company has obtained further drilling permits for the area north of the existing drilling extent and west of Pipestone Pond.

Road construction is currently advancing northward from the Alloy Max mineralized zone to the Super Gulp mineralized zone. Phase 1 is planned to connect four drilled mineralized discovery areas—RPM, Alloy Max South, Alloy Max North and Super Gulp—covering approximately 14 km. Phase 2 is planned to extend a further approximately 16 km northward through the undrilled area between Super Gulp and Atlantic Lake, ultimately forming a ground exploration corridor spanning approximately 30 km of the Pipestone ophiolite belt.

West of the RPM mineralized zone, the construction team is also building approximately 2 km of exploration road along the west shore of Pipestone Pond to reach a surface sampling area that previously returned positive test results for magnetically recoverable nickel. This area lies in the downdip extension direction of the existing drilled mineralized zone and has been permitted for drilling. First Atlantic has also obtained permits for trenching, test pitting, and bridge and culvert crossings along the road.

Since September 2026, First Atlantic has raised approximately C$13.4 million in aggregate through three tranches of non-brokered private placement financing, planned for drilling, exploration road construction, trenching, bedrock sampling and metallurgical testing during the remainder of 2026 and in 2027. The first tranche closed on September 18 at C$6.1575 million, the second tranche closed on September 28 at C$3.77 million, and the third tranche closed on October 6 at approximately C$3.492 million.