Bluebird Plans 18-Hole Drill Program for Canegrass High-Grade Nickel Sulphide Project in Western Australia
Vancouver, British Columbia, June 1, 2020 – BlueBird Battery Metals Inc. (TSXV: BATT; US:BBBMF) (the “Company” or “BlueBird”) is pleased to announce further details of the planned 2020 drill program on its Canegrass Nickel-Copper-Cobalt project, in Western Australia – the world’s top-rated mining jurisdiction1. The two-phase program will consist of 18 holes (3,160 m) of Reverse Circulation (RC) and Diamond (Core) drilling, which will follow up on 2018 successes and begin also test new, high priority areas (Figure 1).
Highlights of 2018 Canegrass drill program
- All holes returned anomalous values of Ni, Cu, Co (and PGE) and included some of the highest grades intersected on the project to-date:
- BBRC001 (Winx) 14m @ 1.17% Ni, 0.88% Cu and 0.05% Co from 65m, including 1m @ 2.70% Ni, 0.23% Cu and 0.12% Co
- BBDD001 (Sunline) 0.57m @ 3.07 % Ni, 0.62% Cu and 0.24% Co from 144.1m
- BBDD002 (Tulloch) 14.25m @ 0.69% Ni, 0.82% Cu and 0.05% Co from 243.2, including 4.9m @ 1.33% Ni, 1.26% Cu and 0.10% Co
- All mineralized holes open along strike and at depth
- Downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) testing identified anomalies in holes BBRC001 and 002, BBDD001 and 002, strongly suggesting mineralization is more extensive than intersected
Peter Dickie, President and CEO of Bluebird, commented, “We are excited to commence drilling at Canegrass and anticipate all preliminary on-site activities, as well as permitting, to be completed promptly. Our drilling partner, Newexco, is renowned for methodically planned and executed exploration programs and delivered exceptional results at Canegrass in 2018. Newexco has been instrumental in a number of significant discoveries in Australia and we are pleased to be working with the company for our 2020 program.”
2020 Canegrass Drill Program Further Details
The Canegrass Project is emerging as one of the more interesting new layered intrusive nickel projects in Western Australia. The upcoming program will drill untested conductors identified in surface geophysics and continue to assess the extents of the Ni-Cu (Co) mineralization intersected in the previous campaign, including targeting off-hole anomalies.
Drilling will commence with an initial RC programme testing the new anomalies. This will be followed by a diamond drilling programme deepening the RC holes that will target the geophysical anomalies generated from the last campaign and any encouraging geology arising from the RC campaign. The current strike extents of each prospect is unconstrained and down dip/plunge extensions remain to be tested. In order to drill the nickel prospective conductors, the drilling at Winx will have to pass through the vanadium-rich magnetite horizons that initially attracted explorers to the area.
Figure 1. VTEM map of Canegrass Project with 2020 drill targets and locations.
In addition, an EM survey may be conducted over selected areas to evaluate potential new targets.
The planned holes to-date are tabulated below.
Table 1. 2020 Planned Drillholes at Canegrass Project
| Phase | Prospect | Prop_HoleID | EOH | RC | Core | Total m | Target |
| 1 | Tobin Bronze | pBBDH006 | 100 | 100 | 100 | VTEM13_09 anomaly | |
| 1 | Bone Crusher | pBBDH018 | 200 | 200 | 200 | VTEM13_05 anomaly | |
| 1 | Saintly | pBBDH019 | 100 | 100 | 100 | testing central part of 200m long strike of Saintly anomaly | |
| 1 | Saintly | pBBDH020 | 100 | 100 | 100 | testing north part of anomaly, 80m north of pBBDH019 | |
| 1 | Saintly | pBBDH021 | 100 | 100 | 100 | testing southern part of anomaly, 80m south of pBBDH019 | |
| 1 | Highland | pBBDH023 | 100 | 100 | 100 | VTEM13_11 anomaly | |
| 1 | Twin Peaks | pBBDH024 | 120 | 120 | 120 | testing central part of 400m long strike of Twin Peaks anomaly | |
| 1 | Twin Peaks | pBBDH025 | 120 | 120 | 120 | testing north part of anomaly, 200m north of pBBDH024 | |
| 1 | Twin Peaks | pBBDH026 | 120 | 120 | 120 | testing southern part of anomaly, 200m south of pBBDH024 | |
| 5 | 9 | 1060 | 1060 | ||||
| 2 | Winx | BBRC002 | 250 | 130 | 130 | Extend from 120m, test beneath BBRC001 and contact | |
| 2 | Sunline | BBDD001 | 225 | 50 | 50 | Extend from 175m, off hole anomaly below hole | |
| 2 | Sunline | pBBDH007 | 240 | 100 | 140 | 240 | FLEM and BBDD001 DHEM off hole |
| 2 | Sunline | pBBDH008 | 340 | 100 | 240 | 340 | FLEM and BBDD001 DHEM off hole |
| 2 | Sunline | pBBDH009 | 400 | 100 | 300 | 400 | FLEM and BBDD001 DHEM off hole |
| 2 | Sunline | pBBDH010 | 360 | 100 | 260 | 360 | FLEM and BBDD001 DHEM off hole |
| 2 | Tulloch | pBBDH011 | 280 | 100 | 180 | 280 | CG039 |
| 2 | Tulloch | pBBDH012 | 300 | 100 | 200 | 300 | CG039 |
| 3 | 9 | 600 | 1500 | 2100 | |||
| Total | 8 | 18 | 1660 | 1500 | 3160 |
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Nathan Tribble, P.Geo., a director of the Company and a Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101. The qualified person has not yet visited the Canegrass Project, and therefore has not yet verified the data disclosed, including sampling, analytical, and test data underlying the information or opinions contained in the written disclosure.
About BlueBird Battery Metals
BlueBird Battery Metals (TSXV: BATT; US: BBBMF) is a Canadian publicly listed company focused on the global exploration and development of strategic battery metals projects, primarily nickel, cobalt, and copper in safe jurisdictions. BlueBird’s goal is to pursue a business model that offers direct and long-term leverage to the price appreciation of battery metals, several of which have vulnerable supply chains, and are part of an emerging sector with extraordinary potential. BlueBird is currently advancing a portfolio of battery metals focused assets in Western Australia and is reviewing new acquisition opportunities to add to the Company’s project portfolio.
On Behalf of the Board of BlueBird Battery Metals Inc.
Peter Dickie
President and CEO
For more information, please contact 1-855-584-0160 or [email protected].
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Forward Looking Statements: Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements, which are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainness and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.
1 Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining and Exploration Companies