Canada Nickel hits high grades at Bannockburn site south of main Crawford project

Canada Nickel (TSXV: CNC: US-OTC: CNIKF) has drilled high grades of the critical metal at the company’s Bannockburn property, about 65 km south of Timmins, Ont.

Highlight hole BAN24-20 cut 10.1 metres grading 1.11% nickel, 0.13% copper, 0.04% cobalt, 0.318 gram palladium per tonne and 0.126 gram platinum from 470.3 metres depth, the company reported Thursday. The intercept, drilled into Bannockburn’s F-Zone included 4.4 metres at 1.32% nickel, 0.17% copper, 0.05% cobalt, 0.394 gram palladium and 0.157 gram platinum.

“(The) second hole at Bannockburn…correlates with both the geophysical target that had been identified in the prior borehole survey and the observed mineralization,” CEO Mark Selby said in a release. “We look forward to continuing to unlock the higher-grade potential of this target, and to testing other high potential conductors identified at the Bannockburn property.”

‘High-grade potential’

In a research note on Friday, Cormark Securities analyst Stefan Ioannou wrote that the drill results are positive and represent a second high grade intersection in the F-Zone following BAN24-18 last month.

That hole, which is 138 metres northwest of BAN24-20, returned 4 metres grading 3.95% nickel, 0.399% copper, 0.152% cobalt, 0.658 gram palladium and 0.427 gram platinum from 260 metres depth. It included 3 metres at 4.36% nickel, 0.322% copper, 0.167% cobalt, 0.385 gram palladium and 0.390 gram platinum.

“The intersections in BAN24-18 and -20, albeit deep, are a friendly reminder of the Timmins Nickel District’s complementary higher-grade potential,” Ioannou said.

BAN24-20 also intersected 15.7 metres of net-textured sulphides inside a disseminated sulphide-bearing peridotite, Canada Nickel said.

Bannockburn, located about 20 km west of Matachewan, is just north of Canada Nickel’s Midlothian and Sothman properties, and about 100 km south of the company’s main Crawford project.

Crawford, believed to hold the world’s second-largest nickel reserves and resources, hosts 1.72 billion tonnes of proven and probable reserves grading 0.22% nickel, plus copper, palladium, and platinum, according to a feasibility study from October last year.

Inclusive of reserves, it also holds 2.4 billion measured and indicated tonnes at 0.24% nickel, containing 13.3 billion lb. of nickel. Inferred resources add about 1.7 billion tonnes grading 0.22% nickel, for 8.2 billion lb. of nickel.

Canada Nickel has this year drawn almost US$1.5 billion in loan and debt support from financial backers and the Export Development Canada for Crawford, as well as $23.1 million from Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) for a 12% stake in the US$3.5-billion capex project.

Company shares were down 1.6% to 93¢ apiece on Friday morning, touching their lowest level in a year when they’ve gone as high as $2.24 each. It has a market capitalization of $167.1 million.