Two new initial resources for Canada Nickel’s (TSX-V: CNC; US-OTC: CNIKF) sulphide deposits in northern Ontario now make its Timmins Nickel District the largest undeveloped nickel base in the country and among the largest globally by contained metal.
The Bannockburn deposit hosts 63 million indicated tonnes grading 0.28% nickel for 180,000 tonnes of contained metal, and 129 million inferred tonnes at 0.27% nickel for 340,000 contained tonnes, the company reported Thursday.
Midlothian holds 595 million inferred tonnes grading 0.28% nickel for 1.68 million tonnes of nickel.
Those resources bump the total contained nickel across the company’s eight projects by about 12% to 20.9 million tonnes.
‘District scale potential’
“The expanding resource base continues to underscore the district-scale potential of the developing Timmins Nickel District,” Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Matt O’Keefe said in a note on Thursday.
The new estimates bring to eight the number of resources published out of Canada Nickel’s nine deposits, CEO Mark Selby said in a release.
“The Midlothian resource was generated from just 45% of the target geophysical footprint and yielded the highest average grade resource to date from our projects,” he said.
The resources add to significant tailwinds for Canada Nickel over the last five months, after its Crawford project was referred in November to the federal government’s Major Projects Office for fast tracking. And in July, resources for its Texmont and Mann Central projects added almost 2 million contained global tonnes to the district, which Selby said makes the Timmins District comparable to the total amount of nickel that’s ever been mined in Sudbury.
Company shares gained 3% to $1.20 apiece on Thursday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at $257 million. The stock has traded in a 12-month range of 74¢ to $1.74.
Biggest in Canada
That makes Canada Nickel’s set of deposits the largest undeveloped nickel district in Canada, helped by its main Crawford deposit that hosts about 9.7 million contained tonnes of nickel, according to a feasibility study from October 2023.
Giga Metals’ (TSXV: GIGA) Turnagain in British Columbia would be the second biggest standalone nickel project in Canada hosting about 5.73 million tonnes of contained nickel. Magris Resources’ and Canada Nickel’s joint venture Dumont project in Quebec hosts about 5.71 million tonnes of contained metal.
Globally, the Timmins District tops The Metals Company’s (Nasdaq: TMC) resource for its seabed Clarion-Clipperton Zone project that hosts an estimated 15.5 million contained tonnes of nickel and other critical metals.
Final initial resource
Canada Nickel plans to publish an initial resource for its Nesbitt deposit in next year’s first quarter.
Bannockburn is about 64 km southeast of Timmins and Midlothian about 25 northwest of the town. Timmins is about 700 km north of Toronto.
The Bannockburn resource is based on 8,528 metres of drilling across 25 holes. Midlothian came from 9,268 metres drilled across 22 holes.
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