Power Nickel (PNPN) - NISK Just Gets Better & Better!

Power Nickel Inc. is a Canadian exploration and development company focused on the advancement of its Nisk Nickel Sulphide project located in James Bay Canada. The location of the project enables it to take advantage of low-cost, low-carbon hydropower to create a sustainable battery metals operation. The project is 80%-owned by the company, with Critical Elements Lithium Corp. owning the remaining 20%. The project holds a large land position of approximately 20 km in strike length as well as high-grade intercepts of copper, cobalt, palladium, platinum and class 1 nickel.

The company recently attended the Mines and Money Conference in London, which occurred between 29 November and 1 December 2022. The company held approximately 40 meetings at the conference, with the meetings aimed at having discussions with promising new investors interested in the company.

The Nisk Nickel Sulphide project consists of two blocks totalling 90 claims and holding a land position of 45.9 km². The Lac des Montagnes volcano-sedimentary formation crosses the project in a Northeastern direction, with the project’s mineralisation composed of mainly biotite, sillimanite, staurotide and garnet-bearing gneisses and granites, pegmatites, amphibolites and ultramafic intrusive rocks. The company believes that the project’s mineralisation, similar to other nickel sulphide deposits globally, occurs in pods, loose-standing mineralisation zones visually similar to a string of pearls.

Power Nickel Inc. on the 28^th of November 2022, released assay results from its ongoing exploration drilling program at the Nisk project. The highlights of the results include 1.17% nickel, 0.80% copper, 0.08% cobalt, 1.46 ppm palladium and 0.23 ppm platinum over 25.86 m and 1.50% nickel, 0.93% copper, 0.10% cobalt, 1.85 ppm palladium and 0.36 ppm platinum over 11 m.

Mines and Money conference

The company recently attended the Mines and Money Conference in London, which occurred between 29 November and 1 December 2022. The company held approximately 40 meetings at the conference, with the meetings aimed at having discussions with promising new investors interested in the company.

Terry Lynch the CEO of Power Nickel Inc. explains the company’s strategy and intent to not only setting appointments but also obtaining new investors for the company as targeted.

“You go through all the investor decks whom they represent or what they're interested in investing in. So, you target the ones you think might be appropriate for your company and your metal and your stage of development and market cap, etc. So, we've had, yeah, some great meetings, and, you know, I think we'll definitely gain some investors and plant seeds also, for additional rounds. Like, we're pretty small at the moment in terms of size. Not small in terms of potential and I think we'll get to be a billion dollars…”

Lynch explains that the current upswing in the Nickel market has been advantageous to Power Nickel Inc. with the company’s share price rising. The company plans to capitalise on the upswing in the nickel space by releasing announcements every two to three weeks.

“We got as high as CAD$ 0.30 and just in the last couple of days, got back up to CAD$ 0.24. It's around, I don't know. Today, CAD$ 0.18, CAD$ 0.20, or something like that. You know, so we've suffered like everyone a little bit but I think now that we started this week with the best result ever at NISK and we'll be getting results out every two or three weeks now for the next five months. So, we're in a very news-heavy cycle. I think, you know, when the people start to look at the value proposition, they're going to start to make the right decision, I think, and that will help them start to move”

Exploration results and entering commercial production

Power Nickel Inc. on the 28^th of November 2022, released assay results from its ongoing exploration drilling program at the Nisk project. The highlights of the results include 1.17% nickel, 0.80% copper, 0.08% cobalt, 1.46 ppm palladium and 0.23 ppm platinum over 25.86 m and 1.50% nickel, 0.93% copper, 0.10% cobalt, 1.85 ppm palladium and 0.36 ppm platinum over 11 m. Lynch explains that the mineralisation intercepted was approximately twice the thickness of what was previously intercepted at the project.

“This one was announced Monday and those are the first two holes from what will ultimately probably be a 15,000 m program. These holes represented about maybe 1000 m total and we had a big goal of 26 m of effectively 2% nickel EQ. It's a good number in nickel and that's about twice as thick as anything we've had so far.”

The Nisk Nickel Sulphide project consists of two blocks totalling 90 claims and holding a land position of 45.9 km². The Lac des Montagnes volcano-sedimentary formation crosses the project in a Northeastern direction, with the project’s mineralisation composed of mainly biotite, sillimanite, staurotide and garnet-bearing gneisses and granites, pegmatites, amphibolites and ultramafic intrusive rocks. The company believes that the project’s mineralisation, similar to other nickel sulphide deposits globally, occurs in pods, loose-standing mineralisation zones visually similar to a string of pearls. Lynch likens the mineralisation of the project to a river of nickel, some areas may have mineralisation closer to the surface, and some may have deeper mineralisation, but the mineralisation is continuous.

“The way I try to describe it to investors is like there's a river of nickel running through this project and like rivers, they can be wider and narrower. They can be shallower and deeper and they can be cleaner and muddier, you know, and that's sort of how it winds through there but they've got a pretty good view of how the river's working.”

The success of the company’s exploration initiatives is accredited to the mineralisation model of the Nisk Nickel Sulphide project. Lynch explains that the model has resulted in the company having a high conversion rate due to the team having a good understanding of the project’s mineralisation.

“We're having a pretty high conversion rate right now. I think that within this fault, you know, this strap between these two faults and I think between the faults, the guys have a very good idea of where it's going.”

Power Nickel Inc. plans to conduct additional exploration drilling at the Nisk Nickel Sulphide project in 2023, with the company planning to conduct an additional 40,000 m of drilling in 2023 after completing the initial 10,000 m of exploration drilling. The potential of the project, according to Lynch is vast, with the majority of the project not explored extensively.

“That's the thing with this project. It's probably only got maybe 40 holes. Yeah, so very, very lightly drilled. I mean, at this point, you know, I think there was like a 13,000 m drill before we got there and then, you know, we drilled eight last year, and we want to drill, maybe another 40,000 m in this campaign.”

The intent of the exploration drilling initiatives of Power Nickel Inc. is to grow the mineral resource estimate of the project to a point where it is a commercially viable mine. Lynch believes that when the company has concluded with its planned exploration initiatives the mineral resources of the Nisk Nickel Sulphide project, maybe as high as 10 million tons of mineralisation.

“I think our takeaway, and I think the big moment in time in any junior mining company’s life cycle is when you go from being just another exploration story to being "hey, these guys are going to have a commercial mine." They think that you can start to sort of look and sort of, say, at the current ore body which probably was around 3.1. We have modelled internally up to 5 million and now with these things, we think by the time we're done, this campaign will get between, when we update our 43-101, our viewers will probably get between 8 to 10 million tons and that will be enough to make us a commercial mine.”

Lynch explains that should the Nisk Nickel Sulphide project reach 10 million tons of mineralisation, the project will be on par with most commercial nickel mines globally.

“There will be commercial production and if you go commercial, if you look at the commercial nickel sulphide mines in the world that are not appreciably bigger in terms of tonnage, they go up to maybe 11 or 12 at the moment. I'm sure they all have upside like we have upside and I think ultimately, for us, it's an ultramafic deposit. The other one like it in Canada was Lynn Lake. We would think that would ultimately end up in that range. You know, the nickel sulphide mines basically are not ever just one pod. Historically, they're multiple pods.”

Future initiatives

Power Nickel Inc. plans to update the NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate of the Nisk Nickel Sulphide project in 2023, with the company also underway with a metallurgical study of the project. The updated resource and results from the metallurgical study will feed into the completion of a preliminary economic assessment of the project, aimed to be published in Q4 2023.

“…updating our 43-101 in there as well. Basically, we've got a full metallurgical study happening now that will add to the mix and, you know, that'll be another way to start and we hope to get to it together to get an updated or get a new PEA out in Q4.”

The company took a break from drilling in December 2022 with drilling re-starting in the middle of January 2023. Lynch notes that the break period is ideal for the company to start investigating various new processing technologies, especially those encountered at the Mines and Money conference in 2022.

“We're taking a break December 19 and then get back at it in mid-January, so the crews take a break and we'll take a break. We've been pounding the road pretty hard here trying to get the story out. So, it'll be good to sort of, you know, sort of focus on some new opportunities and I've got some interesting thoughts on, one of the neat things at the show, you meet a lot of the new technology providers. We've talked to some of them for some time now and there's some interesting stuff.”

Lynch notes that newer processing technologies, require projects to test real-world applications. Power Nickel Inc. will in this regard look to establish agreements with such companies to enable pilot scale test work at the Nisk Nickel Sulphide project in the future.  

“These are people that need test sites. They need pilot projects, you know, to sort of show that their thing works and the cool thing about that one is that it's not a radically new process. It's the new reagent, really, that they're using that makes it so amazing. Chemistry is chemistry and it's quite benign. So, from an environmental standpoint, it's really great. So, pretty interesting.”

Lynch remarks that the company plans to continue with its exploration initiatives at the project in the future, and will continue to publish exploration results in the future, further showcasing the value of the Nisk Nickel Sulphide project to the investor community.

“Core business is drilling core and we're going to keep on drilling as long as we're finding the good stuff and we're finding the good stuff. So, you know, look for your power nickel news every two or three weeks for the next six months and start to put the maths together and I think the other point I would make is that we put our drill results on the site so that people can model this deposit themselves. We're in full transparency mode. We're not trying to fool anybody here but what we're trying to do, with a pretty obvious game plan, we think we've got a really great deposit.”

To find out more, go to the Power Nickel website