Canada Nickel adds to resource at Crawford in Ontario

Canada Nickel Company (TSXV: CNC; US-OTC: CNIKF) has grown its Crawford nickel-cobalt sulphide project near Timmins, Ontario.

According to an updated resource estimate, total measured and indicated resources now stand at 657 million tonnes grading 0.26% nickel for 1.7 million tonnes of contained nickel, a 9% increase from the previous estimate, while inferred resources jumped by 121% to 646 million tonnes grading 0.24% nickel for 1.6 million tonnes of the metal.

The latest resource includes the previously reported Main zone and an initial resource for the East zone, which the company discovered in May.

Breaking the resource down, Canada Nickel said the Main zone’s higher-grade portion in the measured category jumped 162% to 153 million tonnes averaging 0.32% nickel for 485,000 tonnes nickel, and the initial inferred resource for the East zone totalled 213 million tonnes at 0.24% nickel for 505,000 tonnes nickel.

The Main zone remains open to the west and the East zone has more than 2.8 km of straight length (40%) remaining to be drilled.

“The latest drilling phase did an outstanding job of delivering on both of its key objectives – better defining and increasing the Main higher grade zone and establishing an initial resource in the East zone,” Mark Selby, the company’s president and chief executive, stated in a news release, noting the new resource puts the company in a good position to complete a preliminary economic assessment of the project before the end of the year.

Selby also said Canada Nickel is “well-positioned to aggressively advance Crawford towards a feasibility study expected by year-end 2021.”

The company closed the second tranche of a bought deal financing of $5 million flow-through shares on Oct. 14, issuing 2.95 million common flow-through shares at a price of $1.70.

In other news, Crawford announced on Oct. 22 that it has discovered previously unknown mineralization outside the Main zone. The discovery was made from four new drill holes and assays are pending.  “We are very excited about this third West Zone discovery as it is a larger geophysical target than our Main zone and it is further confirmation of our geophysical understanding of the property which sets the stage for further discoveries,” Selby wrote in an email to The Northern Miner.

The four drill holes intersected mineralized dunite (three of four holes both collared and ended in dunite), consistent with mineralization seen in the Main zone, across a width of 800 metres and a strike length of 425 metres, the company stated.

“The final 21 metres in the fourth hole intersected disseminated mineralization with sulphide blebs … approximately 850 metres along strike from the westernmost portion of the Main – Higher Grade Zone,” the company stated in a press release. “The 2.5 km by 400-800 metre wide gravity anomaly in the West Zone is larger in area than the 1.8 km by 100-300 metre gravity anomaly in the Main zone and confirms the company’s understanding of gravity anomalies as a guide to mineralization.”

Crawford, 20 km north of Glencore’s Kidd base metal mine, has similarities with the Dumont project in Quebec’s Abitibi region, according to Selby. Dumont is one of the world’s largest undeveloped nickel sulphide deposits containing about 6.1 billion lb. nickel in proven and probable reserves.

Both Dumont and Crawford sit in what was the bottom of Lake Ojibway, a glacial lake that existed between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. In addition, both Crawford and Dumont contain the same nickel-bearing minerals — pentlandite, heazlewoodite and awaruite.

At press time in Toronto, the junior was trading at $2.12 per share within a 52-week trading range of 38¢ and $3.00.

Canada Nickel has about 80 million common shares outstanding for a $169 million market capitalization.