Mark Selby, CEO and Director of Canada Nickel Company (TSX.V:CNC) (OTCQX: CNIKF), joins me to break down the key takeaways from the Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) on the Crawford Nickel Sulphide Project; located in the Timmins nickel district of Ontario. We also dive into the CO2 capture and storage side of the business, and the interest this is generating from both the US and Canadian governments, as well as the larger exploration opportunity across their broader land package.
Crawford 2023 BFS Highlights
- Robust economics – After-tax, $2.5 billion NPV8% and 17.1% IRR; increasing to $2.6 billion NPV8% and 18.3% IRR with projected Carbon Capture and Storage tax credits.
- Large initial mineral reserve anchored by significantly larger mineral resource: Proven & Probable reserves of 3.8 million tonnes contained nickel from 1.7 billion tonnes ore grading 0.22% nickel make Crawford the world’s 2nd largest nickel reserve. Reserves are hosted in a Measured & Indicated resource which increased by 74% (compared to the 2022 resource estimate) to 6.0 million tonnes. With additional Inferred mineral resources of 3.7 million tonnes contained nickel, Crawford is the world’s 2nd largest nickel resource.
- Large scale, low cost, long-life: Annual average nickel production of 83 million pounds (38k tonnes) over a 41-year life, with production of 48 ktpa nickel, 0.8 ktpa cobalt, 13 koz palladium and platinum, 1.6 Mtpa iron and 76 ktpa chrome over 27-year peak period.
- Net life-of-mine C1 cash cost of $0.39/lb nickel (by-product basis) place Crawford in the first quartile of the cost curve2. The net AISC cost, on a by-product basis, is $1.54/lb nickel.
- Projected revenue exceeds $48 billion, or more than $1 billion annually over project life.
After having Mark break down some of the key takeaways from the BFS, with regards to project economics, the resource size, makeup of metals in the deposit, and anticipated production profile, we then got into the advantages of also having one of the largest carbon storage projects in Canada as another value driver. This CO2 capture and storage is of great interest to both the US and Canadian governments, making a number of grants and funding options available to help move this project into development, without having to rely strictly on equity raises.
We wrap up with Mark sharing the larger blue-sky exploration potential expanding out into 20 other regional ultramafic targets along this mineralized trend on their land package in Timmins. 11 of these additional targets, like the Reid Project and Mann Northwest Project, have seen exploration work that demonstrates the potential size and scale of those additional Projects, and there is also keen interest in wrapping some early-stage economics around the Texmont Project in the year to come.
If you have any follow up questions for Mark about Canada Nickel, then please email them over to me at Shad@kereport.com.
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