Ian Fraser

Ian Fraser, P.Geo., is the Chief Executive Officer and VP Exploration of Fathom Nickel Inc. (CSE: FNI), a junior exploration company searching for nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide deposits in northern Saskatchewan. He personally leads exploration at the company's Gochager Lake project, where drilling in 2025 and 2026 has grown mineralization beyond the historic deposit into several new zones. For investors tracking nickel, a listed critical mineral, he is a primary source on one of Saskatchewan's most active exploration programs.

Fraser brings more than 35 years of mineral exploration leadership, spent largely with junior companies. Fathom's corporate bio credits him with exploration-to-development work at the Casa Berardi gold mine in Quebec (now part of Hecla Mining), service as Chief Geologist at the Komis gold mine in Saskatchewan, and work at Antioquia Gold's Cisneros mine in Colombia, which reached production. He also consulted for earlier operators of every project now in Fathom's portfolio, so he came to Gochager Lake already knowing the ground. In his dual role as CEO and VP Exploration he is Fathom's Qualified Person under NI 43-101 (National Instrument 43-101 — Canada's rulebook for how companies disclose exploration results), meaning he takes personal responsibility for the technical data the company reports.

His method at Gochager Lake pairs geology with geophysics. The team runs borehole electromagnetic surveys (BHEM — probes lowered down existing drill holes that detect conductive sulphide masses beyond the hole), then aims follow-up holes at those off-hole conductors. That loop delivered repeatedly in 2026, producing new gabbro-hosted nickel-copper-cobalt zones roughly 100 metres northeast and 150 metres southwest of the historic deposit. Fraser has also broadened the target model beyond classic mafic-ultramafic host rocks to include mineralized metasediments, and the current program focuses on high-grade chutes — steeply plunging bodies where sulphides concentrate. In interviews he draws a comparison with Manitoba's Thompson Nickel Belt, one of Canada's major nickel camps.

Following Fraser is a working education in how a disciplined junior re-tests a historic nickel camp: geophysics first, then targeted drill holes, with an eye on cost — the company reported that dropping helicopter support bought roughly 1,000 extra metres of drilling within the original budget. His current focus is completing the roughly 3,000-metre Phase 2 program at Gochager Lake, follow-up work on the newly found zones, and advancing the Albert Lake project, which targets magmatic Ni-Cu-Co (nickel-copper-cobalt) sulphides. Together the two Saskatchewan projects span more than 110,000 hectares.