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“Extraordinary”.

Given last night’s news, that’s the only word to properly describe the opportunity Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) has with its “bulls-eye” massive sulphide target within just 150 m of surface in the heart of one of the richest parts of the planet, the incredible Eskay Heart of Gold Camp that has produced Eskay Creek, Brucejack, KSM and Snip.

Nothing is “small” or impossible in this world class Gold-Copper district on the verge of what appears to be a game-changing Nickel-Copper-rich massive sulphide discovery with Platinum, Palladium, Cobalt and Gold as potential by-products.

Dr. Peter Lightfoot, regarded as one of the world’s foremost Nickel sulphide experts.

Nickel Mountain has all the makings of quickly becoming the exploration story of the year in Canada, exactly what the junior resource market needs to spring back to life.  As Dr. Lightfoot stated, “an important new discovery (at the E&L Project at Nickel Mountain) would have profound implications for the study and pursuit of Nickel sulphide deposits in the Canadian Cordillera.”

It would also have profound implications for the market. Phase 1 drilling begins shortly, during this second half of July.

Last night, Garibaldi’s team of Nickel sulphide experts led by Dr. Lightfoot, geophysicist Alan King and others revealed how “12 months of intense research” producing one clue after another has been capped by the stunning results of a VTEM survey that show a strong, broad conductor interpreted to be the final compelling piece of evidence for “massive sulphide zones below and east of 12 shallow drill holes (maximum depth was 122 m) completed by Silver Standard Resources in the mid-1960’s.”

One has to wonder, if the strong conductive response begins approximately 20 to 110 m below where the following holes were drilled, what could the mineralization be like between about 140 m and, say, 300 m?

• 37.8 m grading 1.3% Nickel and 0.79% Copper (from 38.7 m to the end of hole at 76.5 m) including a whopping 5.9% Ni and 1.7% Cu over 2.74 m near the bottom of the hole (DDH-4–1966);
• 27.7 meters @ 1.2% Ni and 0.65% Cu including 4.8% Ni and 1.9% Cu over the final 3.35 m of that hole (DDH-5–1965);
• 63.6 m @ 0.47% Ni and 0.44% Cu in the deepest drill hole (DDH-3–1966) which featured massive sulphides in the final m at a depth of 122 m;
• 30.5 m @ 0.69% Ni and 0.48% Cu with grades increasing at depth in a 175-m step-out to the east (DDH-4–1966), also just east of the Anomaly “D” conductor.

Garibaldi will drill across the heart of the historic mineralized zones into the conductor, verifying Silver Standard’s grades, the existence of other metals, and potentially a major new discovery if Anomaly “D” represents new large zones of massive sulphides as suspected.

Every hole drilled by Silver Standard half a century ago hit Nickel-Copper-rich sulphide mineralization, leaving this unique system open in all directions.  Impressive mineralization was drilled over an east-west distance of 175 m.  The conductor is at least 260 m long “and its potential depth extent has not been delimited in any way.”  The system also includes Platinum, Palladium, Gold and Cobalt based on GGI’s channel sampling of outcrop at the top of Nickel Mountain last summer (8 m of massive-semi-massive-disseminated sulphides returned 2.3% Ni, 2.2% Cu, 0.32 g/t Pt, 0.39 g/t Pd, 0.19 g/t Au and 0.10% Cobalt).

Knowledge of the Eskay Camp was limited in the 1960’s and so, too, was the understanding of Nickel sulphide deposits and how smaller intrusions such as the E&L can be extremely efficient “magma highways”.  Any major Nickel sulphide deposit also requires a significant source of sulphur, and GGI’s team appears to have found that as well in the Hazelton black shales.

We also now know that the E&L displays high Nickel and Copper “tenor”, potentially critical to the economics of a deposit there.

Click on the arrow as Dr. Lightfoot discusses the importance of “tenor” in an exclusive interview with BMR (tenor at the E&L compares favorably with top Nickel sulphide deposits around the world).

As significant as last night’s news is, another potential big “game-changer” could come any day if crews on the ground investigating other conductors along a 6-km trend at Nickel Mountain confirm the presence of Nickel-Copper sulfides at those locations.  That would create a possible scenario of a “cluster” of E&L deposits like “pearls on a string”.

Note:  John, Jon and Daniel hold share positions in GGI.