Announcement • Jul 16
First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Intersects Large-Grain Visible Awaruite over 525 Meters in Deepest Drill Hole Xl-26-16 At Alloy Max Zone, Pipestone Xl Project
First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp. announced that drill hole XL-26-16, the second drill hole completed at the Alloy Max Zone, intersected large-grain, visibly disseminated awaruite over its entire 525-meter drilled length. It is the deepest hole drilled to date at the Company's wholly owned Pipestone XL Nickel-Cobalt (Ni-Fe-Co) Alloy Project in central Newfoundland. XL-26-16 was drilled approximately 445 meters south of the Alloy Max discovery hole, XL-26-15, and ended in mineralization. Alloy Max is the Company's second large-scale awaruite zone at Pipestone XL, in addition to the RPM Zone. XL-26-16 returned a higher visual abundance of awaruite and a greater frequency of coarser grains than the Alloy Max discovery hole, XL-26-15, with abundance and grain size increasing downhole. XL-26-16 intersected visibly disseminated awaruite continuously, starting after only approximately 9 meters of overburden down to the end of the hole at 525 meters, where awaruite remained clearly visible in the final interval of core. The zone remains open at depth, indicating potential for further mineralization below the deepest drilling completed to date at Pipestone XL. Together with XL-26-15, drilling has now confirmed approximately 445 meters of strike length within the approximately 4 km Alloy Max target area outlined by surface sampling, geological mapping, and geophysics, representing roughly 11% of the target strike length and leaving the large majority of the zone untested along strike and at depth. XL-26-16 was designed to expand the Alloy Max Zone southward and test the continuity of the visible awaruite mineralization observed in discovery hole XL-26-15. It did both, intersecting large-grain, visibly disseminated awaruite over its entire 525-meter drilled length. Drilled at a dip of -60 degrees to the east, the hole ended in mineralization at a downhole depth of 525 meters, where awaruite remained clearly visible in the final interval of core, indicating potential for further mineralization at depth. Hole 16 was collared into a significant fault zone that Company geologists believe may be regional in scale and correlates to a differentiation in alteration and magnetic intensity on either side. After approximately 9 meters of overburden, XL-26-16 intersected visibly disseminated awaruite from the top of bedrock. Awaruite became more common, abundant and consistent from approximately 80 meters, and from approximately 175 meters to the end of the hole, it became consistently coarser grained, with grains commonly exceeding 100 microns and easily visible to the naked eye. Visual abundance and grain size improved down hole through the deepest core intervals. Drilling at Alloy Max commenced in spring 2026, following the surface sampling and geophysics that outlined the approximately 4 km by up to 1.5 km target area. Additional drill holes are underway at Alloy Max from additional drill pads, where Company geologists identified visible awaruite in exposed bedrock prior to drilling. XL-26-16 provided a key geological insight. Geologists logging the core observed a transition from magnetite-rich, green serpentinized ultramafic rock to a dark-grey to tan-colored, altered ultramafic with a lower magnetic signature and noted that the abundance, consistency and grain size of awaruite increased where magnetite decreased. Higher density magnetite stringers and veinlets throughout the green serpentinized core produce very high magnetic intensity associated with smaller awaruite grain sizes, while the coarser awaruite is associated with the lower-magnetic, dark-grey to tan-colored alteration. This correlation indicates that prior interpretations, which focused drill targeting on the most magnetically intense areas, may understate the size potential of the mineralized zones. The magnetic transition observed in the core may also serve as a regional target for the mineralized system. The Company is reinterpreting its regional magnetic surveys accordingly, with the potential to expand the interpreted footprint of both the Alloy Max and RPM Zones into areas of moderate magnetic intensity. The Alloy Max Zone was first announced in spring 2026, following district-wide surface work that integrated field geological mapping, surface rock sampling with DTR analysis and geophysics, outlining a major new area of magnetically recoverable awaruite mineralization up to approximately 7 km north of the RPM Zone. The target area measures approximately 4 km in length and up to approximately 1.5 km in width, with geophysical processing indicating the potential for a mineralized area larger than the RPM Zone. Surface DTR sampling at Alloy Max has returned magnetically recoverable nickel grades comparable to surface values at the RPM Zone, where drill core has consistently returned significantly higher DTR grades than weathered surface samples. This established relationship between surface and drill-core grades forms the basis for the Company’s expectation of higher grades at depth and was a factor in Alloy Max being selected as a priority drill target for 2026. Awaruite at Pipestone XL is the product of serpentinization, which drives sulphur out of the system and leaves a sulphur-free alloy that carries no acid mine drainage risk and can be concentrated by the Company’s ONSHORE MAX process without smelting, roasting, or high-pressure acid leaching. This smelter-free pathway addresses the midstream bottleneck in North America, where the United States has no operating nickel smelters and only two remain in Canada, and supports a vertically integrated supply chain moving directly from mine to downstream battery refining, stainless steel and specialty alloy production. The Company is also evaluating secondary chromium mineralization as a potential co-product, along with low-carbon Engineered Mineral Hydrogen (EMH) in partnership with VEMA Hydrogen. Awaruite is a naturally occurring, magnetic, sulphur-free nickel-iron-cobalt alloy (Ni3Fe) containing approximately 77% nickel. Because it already exists in a metallic state, awaruite can be concentrated without smelting, roasting, or high-pressure acid leaching. Mineralogical and electron microprobe analysis at the Company’s RPM Zone has confirmed the awaruite averages 77.62% nickel and 1.69% cobalt, with grades as high as 86.68% nickel and 6.05% cobalt. Initial metallurgical test work using the Company’s ONSHORE MAX process upgraded rock samples from the project’s RPM Zone into a high-grade alloy concentrate averaging 67.4% nickel and grading up to 71.9% nickel and 1.76% cobalt.
