Canada Nickel (TSXV: CNC; US-OTCQX: CNIKF) said it will release an initial resource for its Midlothian property in northern Ontario in the next three months after new drilling results showed near-surface mineralization.
Hole MID25-17A cut 18.7 metres grading 0.3% nickel from 5.3 metres depth, Toronto-based Canada Nickel said Thursday in a statement. It also intersected 330 metres of 0.3% nickel from 54 metres.
“The latest drill assays from Midlothian have delivered the most consistently higher-grade intervals we’ve seen across any of our 18 drilled properties, with the most recent three holes each returning 0.29–0.3% nickel over several hundred meters of core,” Canada Nickel CEO Mark Selby said. “With a target footprint larger than our Crawford project and shallower overburden, Midlothian is showing its potential through these results.”
An initial resource for Midlothian would make three new estimates for Canada Nickel’s projects this year, after it released initial estimates for two other deposits in July. Those resources raised the company’s total measured and indicated base by more than 7%.
Along with the flagship Crawford project, Midlothian is one of several properties located near the city of Timmins that Canada Nickel is looking to develop. The six resources published so far total 3.9 billion measured and indicated tonnes grading 0.24% nickel for contained metal of 9.2 million tonnes, as well as 4.2 billion inferred tonnes at 0.22% nickel for 9.5 million tonnes of contained metal.
Midlothian and two other potentially large deposits, Reid and Mann, form what Canada Nickel calls “the Three Giants.”
Crews completed six infill drillholes at Midlothian this past summer, extending the nickel mineralization outline by up to 300 metres to the south. While assays on three of those holes are still pending, Canada Nickel said Thursday it intends to produce an initial resource estimate for Midlothian by the end of the year.
Other drilling highlights included hole MID25-18A, which intersected 449 metres at 0.29% nickel from 40 metres downhole. Crews also cut 10.5 metres grading 0.36% nickel from 367.5 metres depth in the same hole.
Located about 70 km south-southeast of Timmins, Midlothian is a joint venture between Canada Nickel, privately held explorer Canadian Gold Miner and Laurion Mineral Exploration (TSXV: LME). Under the terms of their agreement, Canada Nickel will need to make a final payment of $400,000 and issue 140,000 shares to buy out the other two companies.
Canada Nickel shares fell 1.1% to 93¢ Thursday morning in Toronto, cutting the company’s market value to about $201 million. The stock has traded between 74¢ and $1.19 in the past year.
Key investors in the company include Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX, NYSE: AEM), with a 10% stake, South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI, with 7.5%, Anglo American (LSE: AAL), with 6.5% and northern Ontario’s Taykwa Tagamou Nation, with 7.4%.
