Canada Nickel Company Inc. [TSXV-CNC; OTCQX-CNIKF] released positive initial assay results from its 2024 exploration program, including the first two holes at the company’s Newmarket property, northern Ontario, and results from the first hole from its Reid property, which delivered the best drill results to date from Reid.
A total of six holes have been completed at Reid and 17 holes have also been completed at the 100%-owned Crawford project as part of a program to delineate an initial palladium-platinum (PGM (platinum group metals)) resource for which assays are pending. Four drill rigs are currently operating and a fifth drill rig is expected to begin on April 1.
The company’s 2024 exploration program is targeting delivery of seven additional resources by Q2 2025 and six further discoveries.
Mark Selby, CEO, said: “Our 2024 exploration program has started very strongly with the best drill interval to date at Reid and a new discovery at Newmarket. The long drill interval of higher-grade material at Reid is very encouraging and the first section delineating an over 800-metre width of target ultramafic sequence — nearly two times thicker than Crawford – highlights the very large-scale potential of this property.
“The initial Newmarket results are also very encouraging, despite the fact we were only able to drill at the least attractive geophysical target due to seasonal logistical constraints. This initial drilling occurred on the edge of the eastern end of the seven-kilometre-long Newmarket target, which is contiguous with the Mann Southeast target and is part of an overall geophysical target more than three times larger than Crawford,” Selby continued.
The Reid Property is located 16 km southwest of Crawford and contains a geophysical target of 3.9 km2 nearly 2.4 times larger than Crawford. The company currently has an ongoing drilling program, with all six initial drillholes intersecting long intervals of dunite and five holes ending in mineralization. Complete assays for hole REI24-17 are disclosed in this release and five holes have assays pending. Hole REI24-17 was collared near the west border of the target and drilled north toward the center of the intrusion. The full interval of 675 metres, beginning at 27 metres downhole, assayed 0.25% nickel including 142.5 metres of 0.32% nickel and 24 metres of 0.4% nickel. In this area the ultramafic sequence is more than 800 metres thick, nearly twice that of Crawford’s main zone.
The company aims to complete an initial resource at Reid by Q4 2024. Drill hole RE124-17 returned 675.0 metres of 0.25% nickel, 0.012 g/t cobalt, 0.010 g/t palladium, 0.69% chromium, 5.99% iron and 0.07& sulphur including higher grade intervals.
The Newmarket Property is located 35 km east of Crawford, 28 km south of Cochrane, and 50 km northeast of Timmins, covering the southwest corner of Newmarket Township. The property contains one large, elongated ultramafic body, that connects to the northwest to the Mann Southeast property.
Newmarket has a target geophysical footprint of 2.2 km2, larger than Crawford at 1.6 km2 and connects to Mann Southeast property which has a target footprint of 4.1 km2 where historical drilling had five drillholes with isolated samples of 0.25-0.33% nickel.
The following summarizes drill results from the first two holes drilled at Newmarket completed during January 2024 which were drilled off the edge of the eastern tail of the property on least geophysically prospective end of this target due to seasonal logistical constraints. More drilling is planned for the summer 2024 campaign which will also target Mann Southeast.
The initial two holes intersected mineralized and well serpentinized peridotite and dunite and ended in mineralization. Mineralization was delineated along a 0.8 km strike length along the eastern margin within the 7.0 km total distance of the geophysical target. The target remains open to the west for 6.2 kilometres where it connects to the Mann Southeast ultramafic target.
The company also announced that effective March 11, 2024 it granted to certain officers, directors and/or employees of the corporation an aggregate of 3,830,000 options to acquire common shares of the corporation and an aggregate of 2,000,130 restricted share units of the corporation (the RSUs). The Options have an exercise price of $1.47 per common share, a five-year term from the date of grant and vest annually in equal thirds beginning on the first anniversary of the date of grant. The RSUs vest annually in equal thirds beginning on the first anniversary of the date of grant.
Statement Regarding TSX Venture
Canada Nickel is advancing the next generation of nickel-sulphide projects to deliver nickel required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets. Canada Nickel Company has applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero NickelTM, NetZero CobaltTM, NetZero IronTM and is pursuing the development of processes to allow the production of net zero carbon nickel, cobalt, and iron products. Canada Nickel provides investors with leverage to nickel in low political risk jurisdictions.
