Talon Metals’ shares rise on high-grade nickel-copper and PGE results in Minnesota

Talon Metals (TSX: TLO) has reported high-grade results from drilling at its Tamarack nickel-copper-cobalt project in central Minnesota that boosted its share price by up to 8% this morning.

Drill hole 23TK0473 cut 101.7 metres grading 1.94% nickel, 1.84% copper,1.61 grams platinum group elements (PGE) per tonne and 0.62 gram gold from 332.8 metres depth, Talon said in a news release.

The hole also intersected 11.8 metres grading 2.36% nickel and 1.26% copper from 381 metres depth, and 12.4 metres grading 2.98% nickel and 3.84% copper from 409.4 metres depth.

The drilling was conducted in partnership with Columbia University under a program funded by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Mining Innovations for Negative Emissions Resource Recovery program. The initiative funds unique approaches to enhance metal recoveries. Columbia’s work with Talon is aimed at using critical mineral concentrates from Tamarack to do lab studies on novel processing technologies that could lower the CO2 footprint of mining.

“Intercepting 101.71 metres of high-grade nickel-copper mineralization is a reminder of the uniqueness of the Tamarack nickel project’s U.S. nickel resources,” said Talon CEO Henri van Rooyen. “Most projects aspire to intercept just 2 metres of high-grade nickel. The goal of this Columbia collaboration is to both add to our understanding of the ore body, while also supporting research aimed at recovering additional nickel, copper and other critical minerals used in clean energy systems.”

Talon’s COO and chief exploration officer Brian Goldner added that the hole also stands out for the higher grades of copper and PGE relative to the nickel grades, especially in the lower zone of mineralization where the 12.4-metre intersection assayed 2.98% nickel, 3.84% copper, 6.85 grams PGE per tonne and 2.68 grams gold.

“The exploration team is working to model this unusual area of fractionated mineralization to identify other areas within the resource it may be residing,” he said.

Tamarack is a joint venture between Talon and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO; ASX: RIO) with Talon holding a 51% interest and the option to increase its stake to 60%.

According to a resource update for Talon published in October 2022, the project hosts 8.5 million indicated tonnes grading 1.73% nickel, 0.92% copper, 0.05% cobalt, 0.34 gram platinum per tonne, 0.21 gram palladium, 0.17 gram gold and 8% iron in sulphides (2.34% nickel-equivalent). Inferred resources come to about 8.5 million tonnes grading 0.83% nickel, 0.55% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.23 gram platinum, 0.13 gram palladium, 0.13 gram gold and 3% iron in sulphides (1.19% nickel equivalent).

Shares in Talon were up 6.1% to 26¢ apiece in morning trading in Toronto, valuing the company at $221.2 million. Company shares traded in a 52-week window of 23¢ and 63¢.