FPX Nickel Announces Appointment of Principal Metallurgist - Kyle Marte, Former Senior Process Engineer with Fluor
VANCOUVER, March 7, 2022 - FPX Nickel Corp. (TSXV: FPX) (OTCQB: FPOCF) ("FPX" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Kyle Marte, P. Eng., as the Company's Principal Metallurgist. Mr. Marte, formerly Senior Process Engineer with Fluor Canada Ltd. specializing in the metallurgical recovery of base and battery metals, will lead the advancement of the metallurgical understanding of FPX's projects, including the PEA-stage Baptiste Nickel Project in central British Columbia. "We are excited to welcome Kyle to our growing team and look forward to leveraging his in-depth understanding of concentrator and hydrometallurgical processes in both base and battery metals," commented Andrew Osterloh, FPX Nickel's Vice-President, Projects. "After spending the early part of his career focused in copper, Kyle has since focused on projects in the battery metal sphere, acting as a lead process engineer for some of the world's largest mining companies from concept studies through to detailed design. As we continue the development of an optimized flowsheet for our flagship Baptiste project, Kyle will play a critical role in advancing the opportunity for FPX to be a leading producer of low-cost, low-carbon nickel sulphate for electric vehicle batteries."
Mr. Marte has 15 years' mining industry experience in mineral processing and hydrometallurgy. In his role as Senior Process Engineer for Fluor, he led the metallurgical development for several base and battery metal projects for clients including, South32, ioneer, Albermarle, and Freeport McMoRan. Prior to joining Fluor, Mr. Marte acted as Senior Process Engineer at Wood (formerly Amec Foster Wheeler), where he led and/or supported process engineering for clients including Teck, Rio Tinto and Lundin Mining. Earlier in his career, he was the Lead Process Engineer for the Baja Mining Owner's Team on the Boleo project, supporting detailed design and commissioning of a whole-ore refinery producing copper cathode, cobalt cathode, and zinc sulphate salts. Mr. Marte is a Member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia and holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Metals and Materials Engineering from the University of British Columbia.
FPX has granted 250,000 stock options to Mr. Marte. The stock options have an exercise price of $0.75 per share and will expire on March 4, 2027.
About the Decar Nickel District
The Company's Decar Nickel District claims cover 245 km2 of the Mount Sidney Williams ultramafic/ophiolite complex, 90 km northwest of Fort St. James in central British Columbia. The District is a two-hour drive from Fort St. James on a high-speed logging road.
Decar hosts a greenfield discovery of nickel mineralization in the form of a naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy called awaruite (Ni3Fe), which is amenable to bulk-tonnage, open-pit mining. Awaruite mineralization has been identified in four target areas within this ophiolite complex, being the Baptiste Deposit, and the B, Sid and Van targets, as confirmed by drilling, petrographic examination, electron probe analyses and outcrop sampling on all four. Since 2010, approximately US $28 million has been spent on the exploration and development of Decar.
Of the four targets in the Decar Nickel District, the Baptiste Deposit, which was initially the most accessible and had the biggest known surface footprint, has been the focus of diamond drilling since 2010, with a total of 82 holes and over 34,000 m of drilling completed. The Sid target was tested with two holes in 2010 and the B target had a single hole drilled in 2011; all three holes intersected nickel-iron alloy mineralization over wide intervals with DTR nickel grades comparable to the Baptiste Deposit. The Van target was not drill-tested at that time as bedrock exposures in the area were very poor prior to more recent logging activity. In 2021, the Company executed a maiden drilling program at Van, which has returned promising results comparable with the strongest results at Baptiste.
About FPX Nickel Corp.
FPX Nickel Corp. is focused on the exploration and development of the Decar Nickel District, located in central British Columbia, and other occurrences of the same unique style of naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy mineralization known as awaruite. For more information, please view the Company's website at www.fpxnickel.com.
On behalf of FPX Nickel Corp.
"Martin Turenne"
Martin Turenne, President, CEO and Director
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is considered "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. These statements address future events and conditions and so involve inherent risks and uncertainties, as disclosed in the Company's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. Actual results could differ from those currently projected. The Company does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
SOURCE FPX Nickel Corp.
Contact
Martin Turenne, President and CEO, at (604) 681-8600 or ceo@fpxnickel.com.
