Rio Tinto takes option on ALX’s Falcon project

Under the option agreement, Rio Tinto may acquire up to an 80% interest in Firebird - which will be renamed from ‘Falcon’ to avoid confusion with another Rio Tinto mine in Saskatchewan - by incurring a total of of $12mn in exploration expenditures over six years, and with additional cash payments to ALX of $125,000.

Warren Stanyer, ALX’s CEO and chairman, commented on the deal: "The Rio Tinto option agreement provides a strong endorsement of ALX's geologic vision for Firebird. We look forward to upcoming exploration plans and to unlocking the potential for new high-grade nickel/copper/cobalt discoveries at the project”.

Rio Tinto plans to meet the first part of its expenditure commitment by conducting an airborne electromagnetic survey across 8,000 ha of the northern part of the Firebird mine. This area has never previously been comprehensively surveyed. It includes the Wiley Lake nickel showing area, where ALX recently drilled up to 1.31% nickel in outcrop, and collected grab samples of up to 2.43% nickel.

ALX acquired claims at the Falcon (Firebird) Nickel Project in 2019. The size of the project is now approximately 20,500 ha. The mine is located near the town of Stony Rapids, in the Tantato Domain, which forms part of the Snowbird Tectonic Zone. In March 2020 ALX conducted magmatic nickel-copper-cobalt mineralization in two of the three holes drilled on new targets.