Highlights
- First metallurgical test at Reid delivers highest grade
nickel sulphide concentrate yet achieved by Canada Nickel
- Overall nickel recovery of 63% with half of recovered nickel
reporting to nickel sulphide concentrate grading 60%
- Results achieved utilizing existing flowsheet design
developed for the Company's Crawford Nickel Sulphide
project
TORONTO, March 15,
2023 /CNW/ - Canada Nickel Company Inc. ("Canada
Nickel" or the "Company") (TSXV: CNC) (OTCQX: CNIKF) is pleased to
announce robust nickel recoveries from the first metallurgical test
on a sample from the Reid property.
The test utilized the same mineral processing flowsheet designed
for the Company's flagship Crawford Nickel Sulphide project.
The Company's Reid project is situated 16 kilometres southwest of
Crawford.
Mark Selby, Chair and CEO said,
"We are very pleased by this first test at Reid which achieved an
overall nickel recovery of 63% and achieved expected or better than
expected nickel, iron, and chromium concentrate grades. While
it is early days at Reid, these results, achieved using the
standard flowsheet developed for Crawford, demonstrate the
potential to leverage our development work at Crawford, across the
portfolio of targets throughout our entire Timmins Nickel District.
I am also very pleased to announce that we have closed the
acquisition of the Texmont property, where our recently announced
drill results support the potential for near-term, smaller scale,
open pit production."
Description of Results
This initial open circuit test was completed by the Company's
third party lab partners on a sample from the higher grade area at
the Reid property. The sample had a head grade of 0.35%
nickel, 0.10% sulphur and 6.2% iron. This first sample
achieved a nickel recovery of 63%, iron recovery of 31% and
chromium recovery of 12%. The final nickel concentrates had a
combined nickel grade of 46% and cobalt grade of 0.27%. The
magnetite concentrate had an iron grade of 55% and chromium grade
of 3.0%. All grades and recoveries, with the exception of iron and
chromium recovery, were at or above expected values. Over half of
the recovered nickel reported to a nickel sulphide concentrate
grading 60%, which is the highest grade nickel sulphide concentrate
achieved in more than 120 open cycle tests completed by the Company
utilizing this flowsheet.
The sample was selected to represent higher grade,
well-serpentinized material and was tested to measure the potential
to transfer the Crawford metallurgical process to the Reid
ultramafic nickel mineralization. The standard test procedure from
the Crawford Feasibility Variability Program was used including
grind sizes, reagent dosing strategies and flowsheet layout. As
expected, the nickel in the flotation circuit was recovered to a
high grade concentrate due to the dominance of higher nickel tenor
heazlewoodite mineralization.
The Company will follow a similar metallurgical program path as
it did with Crawford and begin a variability open circuit testing
program to confirm operating parameters and performance and then
begin locked cycle testing to confirm metallurgical
performance.
Reid Nickel Property Overview
The Reid Property is located just 16 kilometres southwest of
Crawford and 37 kilometres northwest of Timmins, and contains an ultramafic body with
a target geophysical footprint of 3.9 km2 compared to
the Crawford target footprint of 1.6 km2. In the news
release dated January 23, 2023, the
Company reported the results of a 16 hole drill program at Reid,
which intersected multi-hundred metre intervals of mineralization.
The results of this drill program show that the Reid deposit is
approximately 50% wider than the Crawford Main Zone and more than
100% wider than the Crawford East Zone.
Figure 1 shows the plan view of the Reid geophysical footprint,
with the sample location identified. Sample RAS-002 was taken from
drill hole REI22-14 from 343.5 to 391.5 metres within the dunite
lithology.
Closing of Texmont Acquisition
Canada Nickel is pleased to announce that it has closed its
previously announced acquisition of a 100% interest in the past
producing Texmont property situated between the Company's
Deloro and Sothman properties
south of Timmins, Ontario (see the
Company's news release dated December 19,
2022). The Texmont property comprises 14 mining leases,
which were acquired by the Company for aggregate cash consideration
of $4,000,000. In addition, the
seller was granted a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty, which the
company, at its option, can buy down to 1.0% for $2,500,000. The property has a legacy ownership
interest of 15% and net profits interest of 10%. The Company
intends to determine whether these interests are still valid. The
Company had previously acquired 14 claims surrounding these mining
leases in 2022 as part of its regional property consolidation.
Issuance of Shares to Service Provider
Canada Nickel also announces today that, subject to the approval
of the TSX Venture Exchange, it has agreed to issue an aggregate of
24,921 common shares of Canada Nickel in satisfaction of
$38,623 due to a service provider.
The common shares will be subject to a four-month hold period under
applicable securities laws.
Qualified Person and Data Verification
Arthur G. Stokreef, P.Eng (ON), Manager of
Process Engineering & Geometallurgy and a "qualified person" as
such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed
and approved the technical information in this news release on
behalf of Canada Nickel Company Inc.
About Canada Nickel
Canada Nickel Company Inc. 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 Nickel™,
NetZero Cobalt™ and NetZero Iron™ 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. Canada
Nickel is currently anchored by its 100% owned flagship Crawford
Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project in the heart of the prolific
Timmins-Cochrane mining camp. For more information,
please visit www.canadanickel.com
For further information, please contact:
Mark Selby, Chair and CEO
Phone: 647-256-1954
Email: info@canadanickel.com
Cautionary Note and Statement Concerning Forward Looking
Statements
This press release contains certain information
that may constitute "forward-looking information" under applicable
Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking information
includes, but is not limited to, the potential for the Texmont
project, the potential for the Reid Property, the carbon capture
approach could allow production of Net Zero nickel and generation
of an additional tonnes of CO2 credits per tonne
of nickel produced after offsetting all emissions, the
potential to turn nickel mine into a generator of carbon credits
rather than generator of carbon emissions, the production of
estimated average of 710,000 tonnes of carbon credits annually and
18 million total tonnes of CO2 of credits over expected
life of mine at Crawford, the ability to monetize carbon credits,
the ability to quantify carbon capture, emission estimates, the
brucite content of the deposit, the scalability of the process, the
metallurgical results, the timing and results of the feasibility
study including the viability of the inclusion of the IPT
Carbonation Process and related facilities as part of the project,
the results of Crawford's PEA, including statements relating to net
present value, future production, estimates of cash cost, proposed
mining plans and methods, mine life estimates, cash flow forecasts,
metal recoveries, estimates of capital and operating costs, timing
for permitting and environmental assessments, realization of
mineral resource estimates, capital and operating cost estimates,
project and life of mine estimates, ability to obtain permitting by
the time targeted, size and ranking of project upon achieving
production, economic return estimates, the timing and amount of
estimated future production and capital, operating and exploration
expenditures and potential upside and alternatives. Readers should
not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results,
performance or achievements of Canada Nickel to be materially
different from any future results, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. The PEA
results are estimates only and are based on a number of
assumptions, any of which, if incorrect, could materially change
the projected outcome. There are no assurances that Crawford will
be placed into production. Factors that could affect the outcome
include, among others: the actual results of development
activities; project delays; inability to raise the funds necessary
to complete development; general business, economic, competitive,
political and social uncertainties; future prices of metals or
project costs could differ substantially and make any
commercialization uneconomic; availability of alternative nickel
sources or substitutes; actual nickel recovery; conclusions of
economic evaluations; changes in applicable laws; changes in
project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents,
labour disputes, the availability and productivity of skilled
labour and other risks of the mining industry; political
instability, terrorism, insurrection or war; delays in obtaining
governmental approvals, necessary permitting or in the completion
of development or construction activities; mineral resource
estimates relating to Crawford could prove to be inaccurate for any
reason whatsoever; additional but currently unforeseen work may be
required to advance to the feasibility stage; and even if Crawford
goes into production, there is no assurance that operations will be
profitable.
Although Canada Nickel has attempted to identify important
factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to
differ materially from those described in forward-looking
statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events
or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.
Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date
of this news release and Canada Nickel disclaims any obligation to
update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or results or otherwise, except as
required by applicable securities laws.
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SOURCE Canada Nickel Company Inc.