HudBay and Outokumpu dealing on Namew Lake

A letter of intent has been signed between Hudson Bay Mining and Outokumpu Mines, which if concluded, will establish a joint venture partnership commited to exploring and developing Hudson Bay’s Namew Lake nickel deposit.

Located in Manitoba, the Namew Lake deposit hosts reserves of 2.85 million tons grading 2.44% nickel, 0.9% copper and minor amounts of platinum and palladium.

Discovered in 1985, the Namew Lake deposit is 60 km south of Hudson Bay’s large Flin Flon smelter which processes copper, zinc and by-product gold and silver from several satellite orebodies in the vicinity. If brought to production, the Namew Lake project would become Hudson Bay’s first nickel mine; requiring a new processing circuit at the Flin Flon smelter. Hudson Bay and Outokumpu will each have a 50% interest in the property.

Despite the depressed state of nickel prices, Outokumpu believes the deposit could be a money maker. “If it’s brought to production, we think that we can produce nickel cheaper than anyone else,” Adrian Molinari, president of Outokumpu says. He cites high nickel grades, good mining partners (Hudson Bay) and a nearby smelter as the positive attributes of the project which offset weak metal prices.