Qubec Nickel Corp. reported drilling at its Ducros Ni-Cu-PGE project has returned long core lengths of serpentinized ultramafic rocks, including dunitic and peridotitic rock units. These results, coupled with results from the limited historical drilling completed in the immediate area, suggest the Ducros Sill represents a very large nickel-cobalt exploration target very similar to surrounding high-tonnage nickel-cobalt projects in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt.

The Ducros Sill target lies in the southern half of the two-kilometer wide by ten-kilometer long DucrosUltramafic Sill Complex, in the south-central portion of QNI's Ducros property. Historically, three widely spaced holes were drilled at the Ducros Sill target by Abitibi Resources Ltd. (Abitibi) in 1987. Assessment report drill logs for these holes describe variably serpentinized, magnetic dunitic +/- pyroxenitic rocks with occurrences of trace amounts of native copper and brucite throughout their entire drilled lengths (Quebec Government report GM 47268).

Notable results include hole 87-6 which returned greater than 0.22% nickel and 120 ppm cobalt over the last 20 metres of the 106.7 metre long BQ diameter hole before being abandoned in bad ground. Current Drill Results: Québec Nickel completed a series of holes this winter along an east-west fence approximately 100 metres north of the Abitibi hole 87-06 which cuts across the entire 600-metre-wide magnetic high feature. The ultramafic intrusion responsible for the magnetic response is understood to dip steeply to the west, as is the case for most of the stratigraphy in this part of the Ducros property.

Hole QDG-23-503 was collared on the west side of the targeted magnetic high and was drilled eastward at a dip of -45°, towards the centre of the ultramafic intrusion. The hole encountered a package of intercalated mafic and ultramafic intrusive rocks, including gabbro, pyroxenite and dunite, from 23 to 308 metres downhole depth before cutting a 142-metre-long interval of serpentinized dunite, believed to be the same unit encountered in hole 87-6 by Abitibi. The hole remains in this lower dunite unit until the planned end of hole at 450 metres depth.

Of note is the occurrence of native copper on fracture surfaces within the altered dunite unit. Hole QDG-23-505 was collared approximately 210 metres east of QDG-23-503 and drilled towards the east at a -45° dip to the planned end of hole depth of 402 metres. The hole collared in variably serpentinized dunite at 21 metres hole depth and remained in the altered ultramafic unit until 314 metres, a 293-metre-long intersection, where it encountered metasedimentary basement rocks.

The ultramafic unit is cut by rare narrow <1.0m to ~2.0-meter core length intermediate to felsic dikes. Hole QDG-23-504 was collared approximately 210 metres east of QDG-23-505 and was also drilled towards the east at a -45° dip to a depth of 243 metres. This hole collared in variably serpentinized dunite until 117 metres downhole depth, after which it entered the package of metasedimentary basement rocks.

digital Québec government geology for QNI's Ducros project area, as sourced from the SIGEOM database, indicates the ultramafic intrusion in which the Ducros Sill target is included spans from approximately 500 metres north of the most recent drilling to approximately five kilometers to the south-southeast. Modelling of the VTEMTM and drone magnetic data collected by QNI during its 2022 exploration program supports this interpretation (Figure 4). There is no record of this multi-kilometer-long magnetic high feature being exposed at surface or having ever been drilled beyond what Abitibi Resources completed in 1987.

If this geophysical anomaly is an expression of a serpentinized ultramafic/dunite intrusion, as currently hypothesized, it would rival the size of other high-profile large tonnage nickel-cobalt projects currently being advanced in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. This year, exploration drilling by the Company has focussed exclusively on testing targets that require winter conditions to access and drill. Now that the spring thaw is in full swing, work will resume atthe Fortin Sill Zone where ground conditions allow for year-round access.

Drilling at the Fortin Sill Zone will follow-up on some of the exceptional results achieved in 2022, including from hole QDG-22-29, which returned an 11.80 metre interval containing 1.44% Ni, 1.49% Cu, 461 ppm Co and 2.79 g/t Pt-Pd-Au that includes a higher-grade subinterval assaying 1.85% Ni, 1.65% Cu (3.50% Ni + Cu), 576 ppm Co and 3.27 g/t Pt-Pd-Au over 8.43 metres.