Canada Nickel (TSXV:CNC) (OTCQX: CNIKF) today announced an exploration update for 16 wells drilled on its Reid Property, located within 16 km of the Crawford Nickel discovery, currently one of the largest nickel deposits in the world.
Canada Nickel is quickly emerging as a major global nickel player with this most recent discovery. The Reid property is 2x larger than Crawford which on its own is estimated to hold 3.5 million tons of nickel, making it the 5th largest nickel resource in the world.
With all 16 holes at Reid intersecting mineralization, and at very similar concentrations to Crawford (0.20%-0.30% nickel), Canada Nickel likely has another monster discovery on its hands.
We are also encouraged by management’s decision to push out a $10 million debt payment by 45 days even though 90 days were allowed by the lender. This tells us management is very confident in signing additional financing to develop the Crawford project before early March, a major catalyst for the stock.
Canada Nickel is quickly establishing itself as one of the lowest cost ways to gain exposure to record nickel demand growth driven by the explosion in electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.
Highlights
• All 16 holes at Reid intersected multi-hundred metre intervals of mineralization
with 6 holes in Central Core Area intersecting higher grades
• Holes REI22-14 and REI22-16 confirm mineralization of over 500 metres width –
approximately 50% wider than Crawford Main Zone and more than 100% wider than
Crawford East Zone
• Reid geophysical target footprint of 3.9 km2, is more than two times larger than
the 1.6 km2 footprint of the flagship Crawford Nickel Project resource
Mark Selby, Chair & CEO of Canada Nickel Company, commented,
“Today’s results confirm Reid as a major discovery with a target footprint larger than our flagship Crawford discovery and a mineralized core that is 50% wider than our Crawford Main Zone. Grades and mineralization are consistent with what the Company has observed at the Company’s East Zone deposit. The success of this initial drilling, targeted solely with our team’s proprietary approach using provincial geophysical data, highlights the significant potential of our total regional land package with over 42 km2 of target geophysical footprint which is more than 20 times larger than our flagship Crawford project.”
Mr. Selby continued,
“I am also pleased that we are extending repayment of our loan with Auramet to
March 3, 2023, utilizing 45 days of the 90 day extension right that we had as part of the original loan agreement which allows us to advance various financing initiatives, which we expect to complete during this timeframe.”
Reid Nickel Property
The Reid Property is located just 16 km southwest of Crawford and 37 km northwest of Timmins, and contains an ultramafic body with a target geophysical footprint of 3.9 km2
compared to Crawford target footprint of 1.6 km2. Assay results from 16 holes continue to confirm nickel mineralization in serpentinized dunite and peridotite. Similar PGM Zone mineralization as Crawford was also observed in hole REI22-13 which was the only hole to test the contact of mineralization.
Information on the first 7 holes can be found in the December 1st 2022 release. This release provides an update on the remaining 9 holes which were completed in 2022 (See Figure 1).
Reid – Central Core Area Drilling
Holes REI22-14 and REI22-16 were drilled at the western end of the Central Core area which has a target 2 footprint of 1.6 km2 (1.8km long x 0.9 km width), the same size as the entire Crawford Main & East Zone. The holes delineated mineralization of over 500 metres wide including a higher-grade core. The Central Core remains open in all directions from this section (see Figure 2). The holes were mineralized across their entire core lengths, ending in higher grade mineralization at 402 and 501 metres respectively.
REI22-14 collared in peridotite and ended in higher grade mineralization. The hole averaged 0.20% nickel over 327.0 metres, including 0.30% nickel over 58.5 metres at the end of hole. REI22-16 collared in peridotite approximately 540 metres north of REI22-14. The hole also ended in higher grade mineralization and averaged 0.25% nickel over 471.0 metres, including 0.31% nickel over 60.0 metres at the end of hole (Table 3).
REI22-06 collared in peridotite and transitioned into dunite for the remainder of the hole, only interrupted by a few late dykes. The hole was collared near the western end of the anomaly and drilled to the south. The hole displayed moderate to strong serpentinization throughout. The dunite averaged 0.25% nickel over 97.5 metres and 0.28 % nickel over 110.9 metres, including 0.30% nickel over 54.0 metres.
REI22-09 also collared in peridotite and transitioned into dunite to the end of hole, only interrupted by two late dykes. The hole was collared on the south of the anomaly and drilled to the north. The hole displayed moderate serpentinization throughout with an increase of nickel mineralization at depth. Partial
assays contain 0.22% nickel over 226.5 metres, including 0.26% nickel over 67.5 metres.
Section View of Reid (Section Width ~150m)
* True widths are unknown
Reid – North Limb Area Drilling
The north Limb Area extends northwest for 1.5 kilometres strike length and around 400 metres width,with a target footprint of 0.6 km2. Six drillholes targeted this area, with all intersecting mineralized dunite and peridotite sections.
REI22-10 was collared near the center of the anomaly in a transitioning dunite-peridotite lithology, interrupted by a late mafic dyke. The hole displayed moderate to strong serpentinization. Duniteperidotite in this hole averaged 0.20% nickel over 275 metres including 0.24% nickel over 125.1 metres.
REI22-11 collared approximately 250 metres west of REI22-10, near the western contact of the anomaly and continued on transitional peridotite-dunite lithology, interrupted by several late dykes. The hole averaged 0.15% nickel over 378.4 metres.
REI22-12 collared in peridotite and into dunite to the end of hole. The hole was collared on the northwest extension of the anomaly and drilled to the southwest. The hole displayed strong serpentinization 4 throughout. Partial assays of the top of the hole contain 0.22% nickel over 306.0 metres
REI22-13 collared approximately 400 metres northwest of REI22-12 in a gabbro to pyroxenite to peridotite sequence. The hole ended in moderate to strongly serpentinized dunite. Peridotite-dunite averaged 0.19% nickel over 360.0 metres, including 0.24% nickel over 163.5 metres. At the top of the hole, a section of the pyroxenite averaged 1.89 g/t Pt+Pd over 6.0 metres (Table 4).
REI22-15 collared in dunite approximately 640 metres southeast of REI22-12 and ended in peridotite. The dunite averaged 0.20% nickel over 249.0 metres. With these encouraging results, Canada Nickel plans to resume drilling at Reid in 2023. The south limb of
the anomaly remains to be drilled.
* True widths are unknown
Reid Selected PGM Results
