Alaska Energy Metals acquires Angliers-Belleterre nickel-copper project in Quebec

Alaska Energy Metals (TSX: AEMC) has closed its 100% acquisition of the Angliers-Belleterre nickel-copper project in Quebec for $2.8 million.

The Angliers-Belleterre property is underlain by komatiitic ultramafic flow rocks and differentiated gabbro — dark, coarse-grained igneous rocks — in a regional setting thought to be a mantle plume. The setting is similar to that of the Kambalda nickel district in Australia, AEM said.

The Angliers property consists of 454 claims covering 241.8 sq. km located in the Angliers and Belleterre townships in the Temiscamingue region of western Quebec, near the Ontario border.

“We were attracted by the ultramafic flow rocks and the geologic conditions permissive for high-grade massive sulphide deposits,” CEO Gregory Beischer said in the statement. “There are some great prospects nearby that clearly show the nickel-copper sulphide deposit-forming processes were operative in the area. It will be exciting to take a modern exploration approach to this project.”

The acquisition, whose closing was announced on Friday comes as exploration companies are increasingly hunting for critical minerals deemed vital for the green energy transition. Alaska Energy Metals also announced today the partial sale of its previously purchased exploration data to a subsidiary of KoBold Metals Company.

Angliers-Belleterre was first explored by INCO, the world’s largest nickel producer of the 20th century, acquired by Vale in the 1990s. Gregory Beischer, CEO of AEM worked with INCO on the project and, almost 30 years later, returned to acquire it, the company said in an email.

Sampling by the Quebec government has shown that there is strongly anomalous nickel in rock samples over a six-kilometre-long trend.

An artificial intelligence analysis and synthesis of data was recently performed and the results highlighted the potential of both the southern and northern mineralized trends and served to focus future exploration efforts.

In addition to magmatic nickel-copper deposits, the Angliers property is also prospective for gold and polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits, the company said.

Alaska Energy Metals also owns the Nikolai nickel project in Alaska.

Alaska Energy Metals shares’ traded at 37¢ a piece on Tuesday afternoon in Toronto, valuing the company at $13.6 million. Shares had been traded 595, 333 times — significantly higher than the average daily volume of 153,131.