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Canada nickel rapidly advancing the Crawford nickel-Cobalt sulphide Project
Canada Nickel Company has wasted no time since launching as a publicly traded company in February. In quick succession, the company announced a maiden resource estimate for its 100-per cent owned Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Project, initial mineralogy results and, most recently, the discovery of a new platinum group metals (PGM) zone.
The maiden mineral resource estimate immediately establishes Crawford as one of the twelve largest nickel sulfide resources globally, with only five months of initial drilling on less than 20 per cent of the entire structure, which remains open in multiple directions.
“Crawford has all of the hallmark signs of being a new, world-class nickel sulphide project. Our work program over the next two years is vital to establishing Canada Nickel as a significant player in the global nickel market,” says Mark Selby, chairman and chief executive officer of Canada Nickel Company.
Crawford’s maiden resource includes a higher-grade core of measured and indicated resource of approximately 263 million tonnes at 0.31 per cent Ni, 0.013 per cent Co and 0.038 g/t Pd and Pt within an overall measured and indicated resource of approximately 600 million tonnes at 0.25 per cent Ni and 0.013 per cent Co. There is an additional higher-grade inferred resource of approximately 66 million tonnes at 0.29 per cent Ni and 0.013 per cent Co within an overall inferred resource of approximately 310 million tonnes at 0.23 per cent Ni and 0.013 per cent Co. Selby says there are many more
drill targets that offer significant upside potential and an exciting proposition that Crawford could conceptually support a multi-decade, multi-expansion type operation.
Initial mineralogical assessment results of sample material show that approximately 89 per cent of the nickel in the higher-grade core of Crawford’s resource is contained in nickel sulphide and nickel-iron alloy minerals. Around 59 per cent of the nickel in the lower-grade zones is contained in nickel sulphide and nickel-iron alloy minerals. Both the higher- and lower-grade areas also contain significant quantities of magnetite.
Mineralogy testing is ongoing on more than 600 samples and regional exploration on the broader Crawford property is also continuing, including follow-up on higher-grade PGM occurrences encountered in the northern contact of the Main Zone. In April, the company announced it had discovered a separate PGM Zone with grades up to 1.7 gram per tonne of palladium and platinum over 7.5 metres from near surface to a depth of 500-plus metres across a strike length of 600 metres that remains open to the west and at depth.
“With high palladium prices and few new palladium discoveries globally, the discovery of this new multi-gram palladium-platinum zone sitting parallel to Crawford’s existing nickel-cobalt-palladium resource further underscores Crawford’s significant development potential,” says Selby.
“We have an active 2020 work program that will deliver steady news flow as we accomplish project milestones over the coming months. Our objective is to fast track Crawford’s development including completion of a preliminary economic assessment by year-end, and then targeting completion of a feasibility study by 2021.”
Selby believes the timing of the Crawford project will align with nickel-cobalt market fundamentals. “Last year was a stellar year for nickel, with prices up almost 30 per cent year on year by the end of December. We are focused on maintaining our momentum. With solid global supply and demand fundamentals and very few nickel sulphide projects in existence, it will be up and coming potentially large scale players like Canada Nickel that will be ready for development.” l
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