MINERAL PROCESSING – Method sought to recover nickel from iron alloys

VANCOUVER - FIRST POINT and the UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA have entered into a collaborative agreement to study the recovery of nickel from naturally occurring nickel-iron alloys. The research is being conducted at the Department of Materials Engineering at the UBC by Drs. David Dixon and Adam Fischmann, who were also recently appointed to First Point's technical group.

First Point has the exclusive first right to enter into a licensing agreement with UBC for any patentable process that arises from this work where the majority of the nickel ore consists of metallic nickel and nickel-iron alloy minerals.

Samples of nickel-iron alloys from the company's Joe nickel property in the western Cordillera of the United States have averaged 0.27% Ni. The alloys occur as magnetic nuggets.

First Point says it is one of the first mineral exploration companies to recognize the potential benefits for this type of nickel mineralization. See also www.FirstPointMinerals.com.