The repeatable analysis behind the interview. Not what to think of Fathom, but how a nickel-sulfide explorer reads its own drill data, written so the checks can be rerun on the next junior's news release.
15:54 1. Screen low-grade step-outs by nickel tenor, not by headline grade
The repeatable method
- When a step-out hole returns only disseminated sulfides, check there is enough sulfur to calculate the nickel tenor: the nickel content of the sulfide itself, recalculated to 100% sulfide.
- Compare that tenor with the tenor of the known deposit.
- If they match, the step-out is the same fertile system at a lower sulfide concentration, so drilling toward a sulfide build-up could produce a comparable deposit. A low tenor means a different, weaker system.
Here:
Disseminated sulfides ~600 m along strike with 2–3% nickel tenor, "the nickel tenor that we recognize at the deposit itself", let Fraser argue for "another resource comparable to the Gochager Lake deposit" with more drilling 16:18.
Watch for
- Whether a company actually reports tenor, or only metres-of-low-grade. Tenor is the check that separates a real step-out from a sulfide-poor miss.
06:57 2. Follow borehole EM conductors that sit beyond the end of the hole
The repeatable method
- Run a borehole electromagnetic (BHEM) survey down every hole, including holes stopped once they left mineralization.
- Map where the strongest "off-hole" conductors sit: beyond the end of the hole, or to one side.
- Treat a strong conductor just past where the drill stopped as a live target, since massive sulfide is highly conductive.
Here:
"Some of the strongest responses we are seeing to date seem to be developing towards the bottom of our drill holes", on both the south and north sides of the deposit 07:21.
Watch for
- Follow-up holes that actually test those conductors, and whether they hit nickel-bearing or barren sulfide.
08:35 3. When the host-rock model changes, re-screen the conductors you wrote off
The repeatable method
- List the conductors dismissed under the old model (e.g. "barren sulphidic metasediments").
- When a hole proves mineralization in a host you had excluded, revisit every conductor in that host: barren and nickel-bearing zones can sit side by side.
- Check a producing-belt analog where both host types occur together before committing drill metres.
Here:
Hole 25's mineralized metasediment forces a second look at the long linear 2008 airborne conductors, citing the Thompson Nickel Belt, where nickel-bearing metasediments sit "in direct contact with these barren sulphidic metasediments" 09:06.
Watch for
- Mapping and geophysics that rank the conductors before drilling, which signals discipline rather than drilling everything.
18:23 4. Strip and channel-sample outcrops to fix high-grade shoot orientation before drilling
The repeatable method
- Where high-grade veins or breccias reach surface, strip the overburden and expose them.
- Channel-saw samples perpendicular to the veins. These act as "horizontal drill holes" that can go straight into the resource.
- Use the exposed orientation to reset the drill azimuth, then fence down-dip along the shoots.
Here:
Outcrops over historic hole I12 (290 m at 0.5% Ni, 1967) are being bladed clear after the 2025 fire to test a north-northeast shoot trend against the general northeast strike. If confirmed, drilling swings "a little bit more easterly" 23:56.
Watch for
- Channel-sample results, and any change in drill azimuth in the next program.
12:11 5. Screen soil geochemistry for an ultramafic source before chasing an anomaly
The repeatable method
- Separate soil anomalies sourced by a mafic-ultramafic body (a potential nickel host) from those sourced by mafic sedimentary units.
- Rank distant anomalies along the favourable corridor by that source call, not by raw metal values.
Here:
With Dr. Peter Lightfoot's screen, the Wolf Lake anomaly 2.5 km southwest now reads as a potential mafic-ultramafic source rock inside an 8 km geochemical corridor 12:51.
Watch for
- Whether Wolf Lake gets geophysics or drilling next, and what host rock it hits.
20:04 6. Mine the historic holes that NI 43-101 can't count
The repeatable method
- Inventory historic holes excluded from a resource only for missing assay certificates.
- Locate the collars in the field and check whether the logged mineralization runs past the current block model.
- Twin or infill those holes: a cheap, low-risk way to add tonnes the market isn't yet crediting.
Here:
Hole 89-3 (casing still visible) runs through the block model and stays mineralized another 50–60 m. Holes 89-1 and 89-2 are mineralized between hole 29 and the maiden pit, in an undrilled ~100 m × 300 m block 21:17.
Watch for
- An updated MRE that adds the gap between hole 29 and the resource. That would confirm the "quick win".
Methods distilled from the public YouTube interview on Mining Network (18 September 2026). The speaker is Fathom Nickel's CEO describing his own project. Not investment advice.