Mike Fagan,
Editor
Aug. 20, 2024
Power Nickel Inc. (TSX-V: PNPN)(OTC: PNPNF) — currently trading around C$0.65 per share in the 2024 metals bull market — is in the midst of a multi-rig drilling program at the flagship NISK high-grade nickel-copper sulfide project situated to the south of James Bay in northern Quebec, Canada.
The NISK project benefits from:
- Generous tax credits that cover roughly 50% of exploration costs
- Hydro-Quebec substation nearby supplying low-carbon, inexpensive hydropower
- Stable political environment with strong government and First Nation partners
- Located next to a major highway and nearby town
- Shallow polymetallic mineral depth
The ongoing fully-funded program calls for 20 holes across 8,000-plus meters with the PNPN team ramping up exploration for additional mineralized zones of high-grade nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, palladium, gold, and silver at the newly-discovered Lion Zone and at the more established NISK Main Zone.
Of particular note is the polymetallic nature of the NISK deposit, which boasts mineralization for multiple battery metals, including nickel, copper, cobalt, palladium, and platinum.
80% of the World’s Copper Was “Impossible” to Mine… Until Now
The majority of the world’s copper is trapped in low-grade waste rock. Billions of dollars of reserves are just sitting there — and for hundreds of years, traditional mining has considered it “impossible” to recover.
But technology is changing all of this. A powerful new “blue water” formula can pull the copper drip-by-drip out of the waste, unlocking billions’ worth of new copper. Traditional mining is falling behind… let me show you why “blue water” changes everything.
The Lion Zone itself is a new high-grade discovery from last year and a potential game-changer for Power Nickel. The exploration-style drilling underway at Lion is an immediate follow-up to a successful campaign at that same zone from earlier this year, which produced high-grade, multi-element drill assay results, including:
- Hole PN-24-047: 14.42 meters of 0.59 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 69.14 g/t silver, 8.17% copper, 6.25 g/t palladium, 8.44 g/t platinum, and 0.58% nickel.
- Hole PN-24-053: 5 meters of 1.76 g/t gold, 102.90 g/t silver, 12.70% copper, 20.87 g/t palladium, 1.02 g/t platinum, and 0.40% nickel.
Multi-element grades of that level are well beyond what geologists typically characterize as “metals credits,” e.g., minerals in trace amounts that are essentially along for the ride. What PNPN’s geologic team is seeing are essentially “equal-value” metals within a high-grade polymetallic system.
As you’re about to discover in our exclusive interview with Power Nickel CEO Terry Lynch, drill intercepts like the two highlighted above are quite rare in geology and even more so at scale. Hence, Power Nickel has some exciting work ahead in continuing to prove up this style of high-value polymetallic mineralization at NISK.
Those equal-value metals, if proven at scale, will be instrumental in determining the economic viability of the NISK project, which is currently in the exploration stage along with an NI 43-101-compliant resource at the NISK Main Zone (more on that in a moment).
With mineralization remaining open at-depth and along strike, the ongoing program is focused on delineating further depth-continuity of mineralization while testing for lateral occurrences of similar polymetallic mineralized sulfide lenses.
To help guide exploration and advance geologic modeling across the 46 sq km NISK land package (80% earn-in from Critical Elements Lithium completed), the company has appointed internationally recognized geoscientist Dr. Steve Beresford to the PNPN board. Dr. Beresford’s (FAIG FSEG) career includes being chief geologist of three major mining companies, a lecturer and professor, and the founder of several mineral exploration companies.
To fund ongoing exploration at NISK, Power Nickel recently closed a C$20M flow-through financing via the issuance of ~16 million units at C$1.25 per unit. Hence, the company is well-cashed up to complete its near-term exploration and drilling initiatives and will not need to go back to the market for a subsequent round of financing anytime soon.
Mining industry legends Robert Friedland (of Diamond Fields and Ivanhoe fame) and Rob McEwen (of Goldcorp and McEwen Mining fame) joined with several other leading mining investors, including CVMR Inc. and Terra Capital, to provide the investor buyback of the flow-through units financing for PNPN.
In terms of a stellar vote-of-confidence regarding NISK’s potential to host a world-class nickel-copper sulfide deposit, one would be hard pressed to find any two gentlemen more qualified and respected in global mining circles than Mr. Robert Friedland and Mr. Rob McEwen.
Power Nickel CEO Terry Lynch — whom you’re about to hear from directly in our exclusive interview coming right up — had this to say via press release:
“In life, you are often judged by the company you keep, and, in this respect, we think every Power Nickel shareholder wins through this association with some of the most legendary and successful mining investors on the planet. Clearly, they are as excited about the potential for NISK as we are, and this raise will allow us to really ramp up our exploration efforts over the next 12-18 months.”
In addition to the ~8,000 meters underway at NISK Main and Lion, the Power Nickel team is conducting an extensive property-scale exploration program, which will include downhole EM and ground-based geophysical surveys aimed at defining a possible continuity over the 5.5 km strike-length (see below) separating the two zones.
The NISK Main Zone, as alluded to earlier, boasts an NI 43-101-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (2023) of a combined in-pit and underground Indicated resource of 5.43 million tonnes (Mt) grading 1.05% nickel equivalent (NiEq), and 1.79 Mt grading 1.35% NiEq of underground Inferred resource.
NISK Main remains open along strike and at-depth along what has been identified as high-grade mineralization shoots wherein a pilot platform-drill program is underway focused on parallel holes to the main contact for downhole EM surveying in search of new conductors.
Earlier, we touched on the benefits of mining in Quebec. The province’s favorable mining tax laws mean that, for every dollar Power Nickel spends on exploration and development in the province, the company gets back fifty cents in tax benefit equating to around a 50% discount on exploration.
That’s an advantage you simply don’t see in other mining jurisdictions around the world, and it points to the unwavering governmental support for mining that exists in the province.
With access to abundant low-carbon hydropower, shallow mineral depth, and established infrastructure nearby, the exploration-stage NISK deposit is positioned to become, potentially, if produced, one of the lowest-cost and most environmentally-friendly sources of high-grade nickel in the world.
Nickel is currently in high demand, particularly in the EV space where the nickel component in lithium-ion batteries is currently around 60 kg per battery. And sticking with the “green” theme, NISK is projected to potentially host one of the greenest sources of Class-1 nickel (LME-deliverable nickel with a purity standard of 99.8% or better) in the world.
Why It Has to Be Lithium and Why it Has to Be NOW
Lithium doesn’t mean a new EV technology… or a new alternative battery technology… it means lithium.
And lots of it — EVs will soon need 10x more than the world’s current supply. There is no new battery savior. It’s taken billions of dollars, millions of man-hours, and thousands of mining permits to build the supply chain we have.
For an industry that’s now manufacturing six million cars a year (and is hoping to scale to 500% more by 2025) there’s simply no changing course now. Silicon Valley can’t engineer its way out of this problem. They’re going to have to mine their way out of it.
Let me show you why we’re at the beginning of the next lithium boom — and why this $2 lithium miner is the best place for your investment dollars.
We also mentioned a host of other “equal value” metals, which include a number of high-demand battery metals such as copper and cobalt — plus PGMs palladium and platinum. There’s also a robust gold-silver component to the mineralization at NISK; gold, of course, being in record-high territory and silver trading exceptionally well to boot.
With a fully-funded, multi-rig drill program underway at NISK Main and Lion, and with the highly-favorable metals mix being explored, the industry is no doubt paying close attention to what Power Nickel is doing at NISK.
For much more on that, our own Gerardo Del Real of Junior Resource Monthly caught up with Power Nickel CEO Terry Lynch to go over the ongoing advancement of the NISK high-grade nickel-copper sulfide project to the benefit of PNPN shareholders. Please enjoy!
For additional information on Toronto-based Power Nickel, be sure to contact the company’s IR department directly at 416-580-3862 or via email at duncan@powernickel.com.
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Yours in profits,
Mike Fagan
Editor, Resource Stock Digest
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