Having identified 12 high-priority targets from high-resolution geophysical data, StrategX Elements Corp. is planning to conduct a first-phase, 2,000-meter diamond drill program on its Nagvaak project in Nunavut.

Nagvaak is one of three projects that the aggressive junior is exploring in the Far North territory's mineral-rich Melville Peninsula.

StrategX said it has defined drill targets with potential for a major discovery in energy transition metals on the Nagvaak property by applying modern exploration concepts in an evaluation of historical exploration data.

The property features a 6,000-meter-long, 400-meter-wide zone with high grades of a unique combination of elements – vanadium, nickel, copper, cobalt, molybdenum, zinc, silver, platinum group metals, and gold.

Since Nagvaak's discovery by Aquitaine Minerals in 1972, past explorers have conducted geophysical surveys on the property that identified strong electromagnetic conductive zones in areas of surface geochemical anomalies. The junior says these zones correlate well with rock samples showing high values in nickel, vanadium, molybdenum, copper, zinc, silver, and PGEs.

StrategX said follow-up drilling by BHP at Nagvaak in the mid-1990s appears to indicate potential at depth for Nagvaak to host significant metal concentrations in nickel, vanadium, molybdenum, copper, zinc, silver, and PGEs – critical metals that are now highly demanded for the green energy sector and emerging low-carbon economy.

Focused on these green metals, the junior has logged, sampled, and analyzed historical BHP drill core discovered on the property with an XRF spectrometer before sending it to SRC Labs for analysis..

Assay results for the historical drilling are pending.

Promising survey results

Earlier this season, StrategX completed 62-line kilometers of high-resolution ground electromagnetic and magnetic surveying. The company says the Loupe time-domain electromagnetic system used is especially suited for the kind of mineralization being targeted at Nagvaak, and produced a data set far more detailed than prior surveys.

Loupe is a portable, mobile TDEM system that takes advantage of a wide range of developments in electronics and signal processing for a range of near-surface electromagnetic conductivity-mapping applications.

Six highly conductive zones coincident with magnetic anomalies occur at depth below surface mineralization across the 6,000-meter-by-400-meter targeted corridor.

StrategX said it is interpreting the Nagvaak mineral system to possibly be classified in the hyper-enriched black shale category, also referred to as polymetallic metalliferous shales. Parallels can also be drawn with the Kuperscheifer deposit in Europe and the Central African Copperbelt in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.

A previously acknowledged analogy by the company is the highly metalliferous black shales of the Talvivaara deposit in eastern Finland, which contains 2,053 million metric tons of black shale ore, averaging 0.22% nickel, 0.49% zinc, 0.13% copper and 0.02% cobalt (as defined under JORC code; Talvivaara Mining Co., 2013) and is one of the world's largest black shale-hosted polymetallic deposits.

Nagvaak has the potential to provide a resource that rivals the above-mentioned large tonnage polymetallic sedimentary-hosted deposit types, according to StrategX.

Drilling on tap

In September, StrategX said it hired Ontario-based Vital Drilling Services to drill its three projects on the Melville Peninsula, Nunavut, and reported the arrival of a rig to begin an initial phase of 2,000 meters of diamond drilling at Nagvaak.

StrategX said the drill program will target mineralization at depth in the graphitic schist and quartzite zones coincident with the geophysical conductors in hopes of discovering "a potential near-surface economic resource in energy transition metals."

The drill targets at Nagvaak are in areas where 100 of 144 surface rock samples returned results greater than 1% nickel-equivalent mineral values in high conductivity zones.

To date, the best values for each mineral are 0.84% nickel, 0.94% vanadium pentoxide, 440 parts-per-million cobalt, 4650 ppm molybdenum, 1.68% copper, 9.09% zinc, 48.3 grams per metric ton silver, and 1.23 g/t palladium.

StrategX described the target areas as 5% outcrop exposure, with significant sub-crop, frost heave, and float boulders also seen throughout much of the zones. The mineralized host rock is predominantly black shale-hosted graphitic schist with intervening layers of quartzite, and locally the zones containing pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite are coincident with the strongest conductors observed.

More exploration plans

In addition to the drill program, StrategX aims to conduct additional prospecting, rock sampling, geological mapping, and ground geophysical surveys to define and prioritize drill targets, as well as down-hole surveys to test for conductors at depth and define dimensions of the mineralized zones.

The junior also said it has established a 25-man field camp about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) east of the Nagvaak property. The camp will serve as a strategic base of operations for advancing all three of the company's standalone projects on the Melville Peninsula.

With about 95,000 hectares of claims and permits encompassing not only Nagvaak but also the cobalt-nickel-copper Mel project and the nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE Tasijuaq project, StrategX said its first-mover position in this under-explored region gives it a distinct competitive advantage.

The Melville Peninsula also offers the advantage of being located close to coastal communities and access to several barge routes. This allows the company to be more cost-effective and efficient by transporting supplies and drill equipment via ship versus airplane or helicopter.

The StrategX portfolio also includes two new regional plays in Northwest Territories – Projects 939 and EA South, which are situated near the shores of the East Arm of the Great Slave Lake.

Active financing

To fund its critical metals exploration, StrategX reported Oct. 25 that it closed the first tranche of a non-brokered private placement that raised about C$700,000 in gross proceeds.

The company also amended its up to C$1.5 million non-brokered private placement previously announced Aug. 31. Under the amended terms, the offering was reduced to up to C$1 million comprised of a combination of flow-through common shares and non-flow-through units.

The junior said the change in the financing was partly due to the company not completing its originally planned 2,000-meter drill program this year. Workers found about 1,000 meters of stored core drilled by BHP in the 1990s in the field, which will be a major contribution to StrategX's first-phase program.

The company earlier raised C$850,815 in gross proceeds in a financing that closed June 30.

StrategX also won a C$120,000 grant from the Government of the Northwest Territories through the territory's Mineral Incentive Program based on a proposal to advance exploration at cobalt-rich Project 939. The funds are allocated towards a first-phase drill program at the NWT project planned for completion before March 31.

StrategX president and CEO Darren Bahrey participated in the June financing and currently controls more than 19% ownership interest in StrategX.