First Nickel Inc.

Overview - Landore (Conwest Deposit) Property

First Nickel's target is a footwall hosted high value nickel/copper PGE deposit

The West Graham property is located 1.5 kilometres east of the Lockerby Mine Complex and up-dip of the Lockerby East ore body, in western Graham Township. Approximately 1.0 km of favourable Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC) contact is present on the property with known mineralized showings. A non 43-101 compliant resource of 4.3 MT @ 0.52% Ni and 0.33% Cu has been outlined in the north-western part of the Property. The mineralization extends from surface to a depth of approximately 400 metres vertical depth.
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First Nickel entered into an option/joint venture agreement with Landore Resources Canada Incorporated to acquire up to a 70% interest in the West Graham property adjoining the East Zone of the Lockerby Mine. The agreement provides the Company to make cash payments of $150,000 and carry out exploration and development expenditures of $6 million over a four year period. Should the Company fully exercise the option, Landore shall decide whether it wishes to participate to the extent of its 30% working interest in the development of nay deposits delineated by the Company, failing which, the Company shall have the right to increase its interest to 85% by completing a bankable feasibility study within two years thereafter.

Property

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The West Graham property is located 1.5 kilometres east of the Lockerby Mine in western Graham Township on the South Range of the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC). The property is accessible by a dirt road from the mine complex. Access from Sudbury is via a paved road south from Hwy. 144 or by paved road north from the village of Whitefish. It straddles approximately 1 kilometre of the basal contact of the SIC. The property is approximately 130 hectares in size.

Previous Work

The Conwest property is currently owned by Landore Resources Incorporated and was optioned by First Nickel in August of 2005. The property was formally known as the McVirrie-Graham property.

The following table summarizes the exploration work completed on the property prior to First Nickel's Option agreement:

1960-69 27 DDH representing 5,340 m (17,567 ft.)
1987 Regional Aerodat VLF-EM and magnetometer survey.
1988 Falconbridge Limited mapped for major structural features and surface mineralization
1989 6 DDH representing 6,704 m (21,996 ft), Borehole geophysics.

Exploration work to date has been limited to the known disseminated sulphide mineralization located on the north-western portion of the property. Little grass roots exploration, outside of geological mapping and airborne geophysics has been completed on a major portion of the property which includes a large section of footwall stratigraphy and approximately 750 metres of SIC contact.

Geology

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The West Graham property lies in the southwest area of the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC) South Range. The SIC is an elliptical, layered intrusive body forming the walls of the Sudbury Basin that is 60 km long and 28 km wide. The SIC itself is 2.5 km to 3 km thick at surface. SIC intrusive rocks dip sub-vertically in the West Graham area.

The northern Portion of the West Graham property straddles the contact of the lower norite unit of the Sudbury Igneous Complex and the Creighton Pluton, dipping at 45 to 50 degrees to the north. A discontinuous sublayer norite is exposed on the western portion of the property at the SIC contact. Disseminated pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite mineralization is observed in outcrop and in drill holes above the sublayer norite and the SIC contact. A sublayer unit, as identified by diamond drilling, occurs above the basal contact of the SIC and is unusual both in terms of stratigraphic location as well as composition. This sublayer unit contains fragments of granite and norite.

The southern portion of the property is dominated by the Creighton Pluton, consisting of fine-grained and porphyritic quartz monzonite. Large gabbroic xenoliths and cross-cutting zones of Sudbury Breccia are common in this portion of the Creighton Pluton.

Sudbury Breccia occurs as numerous dyke-like and irregular bodies within the main granite pluton. The zones vary from a few centimeters to several tens of metres in width. The Sudbury Breccia within the West Graham property is composed of a dark grey granite matrix with fragments of granite, gabbro, amphibolite, quartz, and rarely ultramafics. Some of the Sudbury Breccia contains zones of biotite, chlorite and carbonate alteration.

Quartz diabase dykes between one and three metres in width cross cut all units within the property boundaries. The dykes appear to be fault related and occur in two directions across the property. Olivine diabase dykes, up to 20 metres in width cross cut all units on the property and have extensive strike lengths forming part of the Sudbury Dyke Swarm.

Deposit

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The Conwest Deposit is composed of disseminated, blebby, stringer and semi-massive sulphide zones hosted entirely within the norite unit, perched 30 to 100 metres above the basal SIC contact. A non 43-101 compliant resource estimate of 4.3 million tons grading 0.52% Ni and 0.33% Cu was calculated by Conwest upon completion of the drilling program in 1969. However, higher grade zones in excess of 1% Ni were intersected within this broader zone of disseminated sulphide mineralization.

Pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pentlandite are the most prevalent sulphides within the deposit. The nickel in sulphides content is high for the Sudbury camp ranging between 8 and 10% Ni in 100% sulphides. This is a reflection of the relatively pentlandite-rich nature of the sulphides.
Sulphide mineralization has been observed in the norite, the sublayer norite, the footwall contact of the SIC and the granitic footwall. Minor, but important intersections of precious metals (platinum, palladium, gold) have been intersected well out into the footwall granites associated with finely disseminated and joint filling chalcopyrite. The best values observed in the Falconbridge drilling occurred between 20 and 60 metres below the normal contact.

Exploration Potential

First Nickel was attracted to West Graham property given the known nickel-copper sulphide mineralization, the up-dip proximity to the Lockerby East, a large section of unexplored basal SIC contact, and the unexplored footwall potential of the property.

The near surface location of the Conwest deposit and the results of a preliminary evaluation of the historic drill results, First Nickel believes there is potential to delineate a higher grade zone within the overall lower-grade deposit. A drill plan is being developed to evaluate the near surface potential of Conwest Deposit to a depth of approximately 400 metres vertical depth.

To the east of the known deposit lies 750 metres of untested SIC contact. Diamond drilling has been limited to two deep holes completed by Falconbridge in 1989. Borehole geophysics completed on these holes indicated untested off-hole anomalies in the vicinity of these holes. An exploration plan is being developed to evaluate recently completed surface mag and gradient IP surveys, with follow-up diamond drilling in early 2006.

The footwall potential of the West Graham property has never been explored or evaluated. Disseminated chalcopyrite mineralization intersected in diamond drill holes in the footwall containing moderate grade Pt, Pd and Au, coupled with similar results noted in past Falconbridge drilling in the footwall to the Lockerby East Deposit, indicates a potential for footwall style high grade copper and PGE mineralization. Similarly is the opportunity to discover significant zones of "no-see-um" PGE mineralization associated with zones of disseminated chalcopyrite. The footwall potential of this property will be tested as part of the ongoing exploration program, both from surface and from drilling platforms at depth from the Lockerby East mine workings.  
Projects
West Graham


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