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It’s been a busy summer for North American Nickel (TSXV:NAN), but it looks like the company’s hard work is paying off.
Aerial view of Maniitsoq
On August 23, North American Nickel announced that the ongoing Imiak Hill drill program at its Maniitsoq property in Greenland has returned the most significant sulfide mineralization to date. The company has intersected significant near solid to solid sulphide mineralizations at Maniitsoq, with drill hole MQ-13-026 returning an 18.62 meter core length that averaged between 40 and 45 percent total sulfides, including several sections of even higher mineralization ranging from 60 to 80 percent sulfides.
“Last year we had pointed out to the market that we had intersected mineable nickel, (1.2% nickel equivalent) and this particular area (Imiak Hill) had some nice looking sulphides,” CEO Rick Mark told Nickel Investing News “Now we are back doing more drilling and have discovered that this is bigger, better, higher grade and still open at depth.”
The results point to an abundance nickel and good grade. Certainly, what NAN has found at Maniitsoq is not your run-of-the-mill nickel deposit.
“Grade is king and we have shown that we have high-grade nickel, and it’s close to surface,” Mark said in an interview, going on to explain that based on the sulfide content of the samples from the current program, NAN is able to gauge the nickel tenor of the belt. “Our nickel tenor is 6 to 89 percent, so if you have 50 percent nickel sulfide, you will have 3 to 4 percent nickel and that is very, very good.”
Furthermore, it is important to note that the way nickel deposits are formed, the nickel tends to precipitate downward, creating a large mass. This means that as NAN keeps drilling, the mineralization is getting better the deeper they go. This has solidified the company’s objective to follow the mineralization towards the base of that mafic norite intrusion, COO Neil Richardson said in the company’s statement.
As a note on depth for investors, Mark pointed to Sudbury, Ontario, one of the largest nickel camps in the world. He explained that in Sudbury, some mines are extracting nickel from depths of 3,500 meters.
With only 27 holes in the ground and over 5,106 square kilometers of area to cover, North American Nickel is just getting started.
More heavyweights in their corner
When NAN first spoke with Nickel Investing News at the end of July, Richardson highlighted the partnerships that the company has with both VMS Ventures (TSXV:VMS) which holds a 27.5 percent stake in NAN and the Sentient Group, NAN’s strategic partner, which holds a 30 percent share in the company.
With upcoming copper producer VMS owning a large share of NAN, investors have some options when it comes to the amount of risk they are willing to invest in this speculative play.
Securities Disclosure: I, Vivien Diniz, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: North American Nickel and VMS Ventures are clients of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.