The Hatzl is in the southern part of the Turnagain ultramafic complex directly to the southeast of the Horsetrail nickel deposit (104I 119), about 0.5 kilometre distance. It was intruded in the Early Jurassic (and earlier(?)) into Upper Paleozoic (?) and/or Triassic (?) metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the Quesnel Terrane. It is in faulted contact on the east and north with slate and phyllite of the Paleozoic Road River Group (Ancestral North America).

Hatzl Zone mineralization consists of disseminated and net textured pyrrhotite and pentlandite hosted by dunite and wehrlite. This mineralization is similar to the Horsetrail Zone and may be continuous with Horsetrail. The Turnagain River flows between the two zones and as of 2007 the region below the river had not been sufficiently drill-tested to exclude the potential of additional mineralization. The Hatzl Zone is 1,150 metres long in a northeast direction and 300 metres wide in a northwest direction and has been tested by 17 drill holes.

Significant intersections include 0.31 per cent total nickel and 0.018 cobalt over 56 metres, from 228 metres to 284 metres, in hole 06-152 (including 0.43 per cent nickel and 0.018 cobalt over 24 metres, from 260 to 284 metres) (Press Release, Hard Creek Nickel Corp., January 10, 2007).

Work History

The Hatzl received limited prior drilling along the southern ultramafic contact by Falconbridge in 1970 and Bren Mar in 1996. Drilling by Hard Creek in the Hatzl area was conducted on 100-metre and 200-metre-spaced drill fences within a one kilometre by 0.5-kilometre area.

In 2006, Hard Creek Nickel Corp drilled 12 holes in the Hatzl area in order to test several airborne geophysical anomalies identified during 2004. Every hole intersected nickel mineralization consisting of disseminated and net-textured pyrrhotite and pentlandite hosted by dunite and wehrlite. This mineralization is similar in texture and host rock to the Horsetrail nickel deposit.

See Turnagain Nickel (Horsetrail) (104I 119) for further details of the Turnagain property, including geology, work history and bibliography.