Canada Nickel doubles nickel resource at Ontario project

Canada Nickel more than doubled the reported measured and indicated nickel resource at its Crawford Nickel Sulfide Project in Ontario after receiving results from an updated mineral resource estimate, the company said July 6.

Crawford's measured and indicated resource now totals 1.4 billion mt grading at 0.24% nickel, which could yield an estimated 3.5 million mt of contained nickel, according to a statement.

The latest mineral resource update also estimates an additional 670 million mt of nickel at a 0.23% grade within the project's inferred resource.

CEO Mark Selby said the new resource estimate potentially positions Crawford as the fifth largest nickel sulfide resource in the world after three years of exploration and studies at the site.

"When combined with the potential for zero carbon production, Crawford is expected to become an important source of nickel for electric vehicle and stainless-steel producers," Selby said. "With additional potential from a number of holes still pending assays at the resource cut-off date, we expect the final feasibility study resource to support the upper end of our mine plan target of 1.3 billion mt to 1.8 billion mt."

The Toronto-based mining developer said the completion of a feasibility study at Crawford is expected by the end of the year.

Crawford could also produce iron, chromium, cobalt, palladium and platinum, the company added.

Spot battery-grade nickel sulfate with minimum 22% nickel content and maximum 100 ppb magnetic material was assessed at Yuan 37,500/mt ($5,577 /mt) DDP China July 6, according to Platts assessment from S&P Global Commodity Insights. The assessment stayed below Yuan 30,000/mt for the duration of 2020, and then fluctuated between Yuan 30,000/mt and Yuan 40,000/mt throughout 2021.

The Platts nickel assessment hit a record Yuan 56,000/mt in March.