The company anticipates receiving assays from final three infill holes on the eastern end of the Main zone within the next week and plans to deliver an updated resource during the first half of October.
Canada Nickel remains on track to deliver a preliminary economic assessment by year-end
It is also expecting assays from the three follow-up holes on the previously reported PGM results, which yielded three separate intersections including 2.6 g/t PGM over 7.5 metres, during the next few weeks, as well as a steady series of assay results from drilling now underway on prospective geophysical nickel targets on the several kilometres of the Crawford structure.
With these results, Canada Nickel remains “on track to deliver a preliminary economic assessment by year-end,” said chairman and CEO Mark Selby in a press release. Following that, it will move into a feasibility study.
The Crawford project is located the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp, adjacent to existing infrastructure. With an estimated 600.4mt of measured and indicated resources at 0.25% Ni for 1,524.5kt contained nickel, it ranks as one of the 12 largest nickel sulphide resources globally, based on metrics used by Wood Mackenzie.
In a recent interview with CBC, Selby said the nickel could be ready to be produced at by the middle of the decade.
Earlier this week, Canada Nickel kicked off airborne magnetic and gravity surveys on nearby optioned properties that were acquired through earn-in agreements with Noble Mineral Exploration earlier in the year.
Zero-carbon nickel
To advance its nickel-cobalt sulphide discovery, Canada Nickel said it is committed to extract and process the mineral in an environmentally friendly way.
Its subsidiary NetZero Metals was launched for the purpose of developing zero-carbon production of nickel, cobalt and iron, using a mining process that would allow the capture of carbon dioxide by waste rock and tailings.
“We’ve got the real potential to turn Timmins into a significant nickel district. And become, we hope, one of the largest nickel sulfide operating regions in the world,” Selby told CBC.
“It’s still early days with our project,” he added. “But we think we’re on the path to something that’ll actually produce more nickel than Sudbury on an annual basis.”
Shares of Canada Nickel advanced 3.7% by noon EDT Thursday on the latest drill results. The battery metals miner has a market capitalization of C$112.7 million.
