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Third Drill Rig Arrives at Hard
Creek Property
(VANCOUVER) - Hard Creek Nickel Corp. is pleased to
provide this update on the 2007 drilling program currently in progress on its
100% owned Turnagain Nickel property, located 70km east of Dease Lake, in
northern British Columbia.
A third drill rig has arrived on site to test new
exploration targets identified as a result of detailed field exploration
programs conducted in 2005 and 2006. The rig is a helicopter-portable
LF70 unit capable of drilling over 300m (984 feet).
The three main exploration target areas being
drilled have been labeled from west to east as the Mandible, Central and the
Cliff Areas. None of these areas are presently accessible by either an access
road or an excavator trail.
The Mandible Area is located 4.5km (2.8 miles)
northwest of the Horsetrail deposit near the northwest edge of the Turnagain
ultramafic complex. Approximately thirty grab and chip samples have been
collected from dunite outcrops over a 1.5km (0.9 mile) strike length with the
sulfide nickel content ranging from 0.048% to 0.262% Ni. Pentlandite was
identified often as the most abundant sulfide present. Three holes up to 300m
(984 feet) deep are planned as an initial test in this area.
The Central
Area extends 1.5km (0.9 mile) east from the Mandible target and includes a
number of soil anomalies and mineralized outcrops. Chip samples analyzed up
to 0.70% sulfide nickel and 0.76 g/t combined platinum and palladium across
1.0m (3.3 feet) and grab samples from boulders returned up to 1.89% sulfide
nickel and 3.16 g/t combined platinum and palladium. Five holes are presently
proposed to test beneath mineralized bedrock exposures, soil anomalies and a
weak airborne electromagnetic anomaly.
The Cliff Area
is a 2km (1.2 mile) long segment of ultramafic rocks, located 1.5 to 3km (0.9
to 1.9 mile) northeast of the Horsetrail deposit and separated from the main
Turnagain ultramafic complex by a narrow band of nickel-barren phyllite. A
historical drill hole extending beneath one of the Cliff rock outcrops in
1997 intersected 20m (65.6 feet) of 0.30% nickel total, 0.61 g/t combined
platinum and palladium and 0.13% copper but was never followed up. The
initial exploration drilling will target several airborne electromagnetic conductors
and evaluate the extent of two rock outcrops identified as containing
net-textured sulfides located adjacent to the serpentinized margins of the
ultramafic rocks. Similar conductors in the Horsetrail deposit were produced
by semi-massive pyrrhotite, net-textured pyrrhotite-pentlandite and graphite
seams within the large volume of intercumulus sulfide mineralization. Several
proposed holes will be drilled deep enough to evaluate the base of the
ultramafic for sulfide accumulations.
As an update to
the present drilling program, two skid mounted drills have completed 14 holes
for 5,000m (16,404 feet) in the area of the Horsetrail deposit. Most of these
holes were designed as infill drilling to confirm the resource model and
upgrade inferred resource to indicated and measured resource category.
Analytical samples are being processed by Acme Laboratory in Smithers, BC and
Vancouver, BC and results will be reported when available. All the 2007 drill
hole collar locations are shown on Hard Creek's web site at
www.hardcreek.com.
One of the
first two drill rigs has now commenced a 15 hole program of infill and step
out drilling in the Northwest deposit, located 1.0km (0.6 mile) northwest of
the Horsetrail deposit. The second of the first two rigs is drilling exploration
holes in an overburden covered area between the Horsetrail deposit and the
original Discovery showing. Subsequently, it will be moved to test for
extensions to the Duffy Area mineralization.
In addition to
the resource and exploration drilling program, five drill sites are being
prepared in the Horsetrail and Northwest areas for the collection of
approximately 1000kg (2205 lbs) of PQ-sized (2.5 inch diameter) drill core to
be utilized for a variety of crushing, grinding and abrasion testwork.
This press release has been reviewed and approved by Neil
Froc, P. Eng, a Qualified Person consistent with NI 43-101.
�NEIL FROC�
Neil Froc
Executive Vice President
Hard Creek Nickel Corporation
The TSX Venture Exchange
does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this news
release.
1060 � 1090 W. Georgia St., Vancouver, BC, Canada
V6E 3V7
T: 604-681-2300 F: 604-681-2310
E: info@hardcreek.com W: http://www.hardcreeknickel.com
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