Phase 1 drill programme has commenced at the historic Howells Lake East Antimony Zone, located in the Thunder Bay Mining Division of northwestern Ontario, approximately 120 km west of the Ring of Fire access corridor.
Highlights:
First hole of the Phase I diamond drill programme (HWL-2026-001) completed to a depth of 201 m, the first modern drilling since the original discovery in 1979.
Visual inspection confirms broad near-surface mineralisation with multiple zones of stibnite (Sb2S3) mineralisation and strong alteration within the first 100 m, starting at just 24 m downhole.
Disseminated to semi-massive stibnite stringers observed along rock foliation and in brecciated quartz-carbonate veins within chlorite-fuchsite altered feldspar porphyry and proximal lithologies, consistent with the company's geological model for the East Zone.
Pyrite-pyrrhotite-sphalerite sulphide mineralisation also observed disseminated throughout the drill hole, indicating a broader sulphide-bearing system.
Core logging, photography, cutting, and sampling underway; samples submitted to AGAT Laboratories in Thunder Bay for processing and analysis. Results will be reported once received.
"We put our first hole into a deposit that hasn't been drilled in over 45 years, and the system delivered visible antimony mineralisation from near surface, right where we expected it," said Duane Parnham, Founder, Executive Chairman and CEO of Critical One. "This is the first of approximately a dozen planned holes and we are off to a strong start. At a time when antimony is critical to military and defence supply chains and trading at levels that didn't exist when first discovered, we have a full programme ahead of us and we look forward to reporting assays and further results as they become available."