Massive Nickel Sulfide Discovery in Ontario Attracts Major Attention

• Aston Minerals started off looking for gold in Ontario, Canada but pivoted to nickel after hitting high-grade nickel sulfides while drilling for gold.
• They have hit very wide, high-grade nickel intercepts of 0.52% nickel over 163 meters and 0.43% nickel over 282 meters. The holes end in mineralization.
• The deposit is open along strike and at depth. Additional step-out drilling is underway to define the size.
• The nickel grades are higher than large nickel mines like BHP's Mount Keith mine at 0.52% nickel. The deposit also has by-product cobalt.
• Aston aims to define a large nickel resource to attract interest from major miners for development given its location near infrastructure in mining-friendly Ontario, Canada.

Aston Minerals is an Australian exploration company that has made waves with a major nickel sulfide discovery in Ontario, Canada. The company started off looking for large-scale gold deposits but pivoted to nickel after intersecting exceptional high-grade nickel while drilling at their Storm Project near the historic Cobalt mining district.

From Gold Hunt to Nickel Bonanza

Aston Minerals acquired the Storm Project licenses covering 11,000 acres in Ontario in mid-2020 with the aim of finding large gold deposits in the region. According to Executive Chairman Tolga Kumova, they acquired the project after hearing about impressive historical gold intercepts on the claims, including 5 meters at 85 g/t gold and 3 meters at 52 g/t gold.

The company started drilling for gold and hit a 1 meter interval grading nearly 2 kg per tonne gold, proving the presence of a substantial gold system. But during this phase, they also started hitting significant nickel sulfide mineralization in the core. As Kumova states:

"As we're stepping along, we're hitting sulfides and we're xrfing and we're looking it's coming up with nickel values so we're like okay this this is interesting um we need to look at the potential for nickel here."

The nickel grades looked too good to ignore, so Aston pivoted the focus at Storm to nickel exploration.

Historical Data Points to Massive Nickel Deposit

The nickel mineralization occurs along a buried magnetic feature that is lightly covered by a thin overburden. The mineralization was overlooked in the past due to this thin glacial till cover, but the rocks told the story to Aston's geological team.

Several historical drill holes from the 1950s and 1960s intersected long intervals of nickel mineralization along this structure, reaching up to 0.5-0.6% nickel. A historic reconnaissance report also highlighted the nickel potential. Aston recognized these were impressive nickel grades five decades ago, indicating a massive nickel deposit by today's standards.

Exceptional High-Grade Nickel Intercepts

Aston's early drilling at Storm has intersected exceptional thicknesses and grades of nickel sulfide mineralization, including:

• 163 meters at 0.52% nickel and 0.016% cobalt
• 282 meters at 0.43% nickel
• 245 meters at 0.40% nickel (assays pending)

These holes ended in mineralization with the grades increasing at depth. For example, the last 18 meters of the 163-meter intercept graded 0.66% nickel. Kumova emphasizes these outstanding results are no fluke but likely part of an extensive nickel deposit, stating:

"Let's just be I'm going to be perfectly open that's lucky what we've done is step out 150 meters and hit it again so we're already on the path to expanding the size of this deposit."

Deposit Open Along Strike and at Depth

The high-grade mineralization has been traced along 350 meters of strike and drilled to 400 meters depth so far. This zone remains open in all directions.

Aston Minerals is aggressively step-out drilling to trace the scale of the mineralized system. Recent holes were collared 150 meters and 250 meters along strike to the southwest. These holes also intersected hundreds of meters of sulfide mineralization based on visual estimates from the core. Assay results are pending. Aston has permitted additional drill pads to test the deposit to the northeast and further along strike. Kumova expects 20,000 meters of drilling is required to trace the full extent of the nickel zone, which he notes behaves like the large nickel deposits mined by major diversified miners like BHP.

Major Resource Potential

Based on the grades and thicknesses intersected, Aston believes Storm has the potential to host hundreds of millions of tonnes of nickel mineralization. Kumova notes the deposit could quickly rival major global nickel mines, stating:

"If we find a deposit of that scale then and building a 20 million tonne per annum plant that's to use a hypothetical 20 million tonne of plant processing 0.5 material you're producing you know north of 50 somewhere between 15 100 000 tons of nickel metal."

Aston aims to continue step-out drilling to prove up a major nickel resource over the coming year. The scale of the potential resource is what will really grab the attention of global diversified miners and battery metals companies.

Nearby Infrastructure and Mining Talent

The Storm Project's location puts it in a prime jurisdiction for nickel mining. It is situated only 150 kilometres from the famous Sudbury Nickel Mining District, home to some of the world's largest nickel operations. This provides easy access to world-class mining infrastructure and an experienced workforce to develop a mine. As Kumova states:

"One place in the world that you want to find this a project like this is 150 k's north of Sudbury because the amount of skills technical capability um in that part of the world to run operate and build a mine of this scale is it's probably the best place in the world to have discovered it."

The location also provides cheap, green hydroelectric power to operate a mine and processing plant, enhancing project economics.

Next Steps: Drilling to Define Scale

Aston Minerals is focused on expanding the drilling program at Storm to trace the full extent of the high-grade nickel mineralization. The company will need to raise capital to fund an estimated 20,000 meters of drilling and metallurgical studies.

If Aston can prove up a major nickel sulfide resource over the next 12 months, it will grab the attention of major mining companies and position the Storm Project as a marquee nickel development asset for Ontario. Until mining majors can get involved, Kumova stresses Aston has the capability and ambition to take Storm through resource definition.

But the ultimate endgame will likely involve a takeover or joint venture with a major company to develop what Kumova calls a "very large magmatic nickel sulfide intrusive body." The scale of the potential resource suggests the project will one day produce meaningful quantities of battery-grade nickel and cobalt to feed the electric vehicle revolution.

The Investment Thesis for Aston Minerals

• Major high-grade nickel sulfide discovery in a top mining jurisdiction
• Multiple thick, exceptional-grade drill intersections demonstrate significant scale potential
• Deposit open along strike and at depth with aggressive follow-up drilling underway
• Good infrastructure and mining talent nearby to support development
• On the path to defining a world-class nickel resource to attract major miner interest

Aston Minerals has made a potentially massive nickel discovery in Ontario that could quickly develop into a major new nickel mine to supply the EV battery boom.