Overview
Nickel is an important critical element in the electric vehicle market due to its ability in conducting higher energy density and larger storage capacities in batteries. In 2021, the sales of electric vehicles reached 6.75 million with the demand for electric battery production also increasing by 11 percent or 196,000 metric tonnes (mt) and is expected to grow to 855,000 mt in 2026.
With the EV market playing a significant role in achieving the zero emissions target by 2050, nickel exploration and mining companies are seen to be gearing up for it.
Tartisan Nickel Corp (CSE:TN; OTCQX:TTSRF)(FSE:A2D) is a Canadian battery metals exploration and development company focuses on developing the Kenbridge nickel–copper–cobalt project located in Northwestern Ontario, Canada.
The company commenced construction on an all-season access road into the Kenbridge Nickel Project and
completed a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) independently prepared by P&E Mining Consultants Inc of Brampton, Ontario. The PEA is focused solely on mining the Mineral Resources at the Kenbridge Nickel Project underground mine and provides a solid base case for moving the Kenbridge Project forward. The PEA indicated a 9-year mine plan based on a 1,500 tonne per day underground mining and processing operation. The Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources assume an overall dilution of 47 percent and a 94 percent mine recovery factor.
Tartisan Nickel also owns the Sill Lake silver–lead property in Sault St. Marie, Ontario. Tartisan Nickel also maintains an investment portfolio that provides smart exposure to silver and nickel markets and projects. It currently has an equity stake of 2 percent net smelter return (NSR) on the La Victoria asset in Peru; Class 1 Nickel & Technologies Inc. (CSE:NICO) plus a 0.5 percent NSR on the Alexo-Kelex asset; and Peruvian Metals Corp. (TSXV:PER).
In 2021, Tartisan Nickel prepared a Technical NI 43-101 Report for its Sill Lake property. The report aims to validate and reinterpret the work previously done by Chemrox Technologies LLC, documentation of the current claims package held by Tartisan, and an examination of an airborne spectrographic report prepared by Steele and Associates.
Key Projects
Kenbridge Nickel Deposit
Tartisan Nickel published (Sedar: September 17, 2020) a NI 43-101 updated mineral resource estimate that outlined a combined open-pit and underground measured and indicated resource of 7.47 Mt at 0.6 percent nickel and 0.32 percent copper for a total of 177 million pounds of contained nickel. An additional 0.985 Mt at 1 percent nickel and 0.62 percent copper (22 million pounds of contained nickel) were calculated as inferred mineral resources. Details of the mineral resource estimate are shown in Table 1.
Open at depth and along strike the Kenbridge Deposit hosts a 622 meter shaft and increased grades at depth.
In 2018 Tartisan Nickel underwent a strategic review of how the Company would move forward in light of weak investment in metals markets. At the time there appeared to be an emerging electric vehicle (EV) movement which Tartisan Nickel thought was going to become a driving force in the metals market. This thinking lead to a merger with Canadian Arrow Mines Limited, a junior explorer which owned the Kenbridge Nickel Deposit in northwestern Ontario.
The Kenbridge deposit was discovered in 1937 by Coniagas and is located in Kenora, Ontario between Fort Frances and Dryden. Falconbridge Limited acquired the property in 1952, began construction in 1954 with a subsequent mining operation lasting for 2.5 years. A 609 metre deep shaft with two working levels was developed and a bulk sample was extracted. At that time, there was no feasible way to move the ore to facilities, so it was shut down in 1958. The project sat dormant until 2007 when Canadian Arrow acquired the property, completed a 40,000 metre drill campaign and proceeded to establish a NI 43-101 Resource Estimate & Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). (2008, 2010)
The Kenbridge Deposit is located in a stable political and mining friendly region (New Gold’s Rainy River Gold Deposit is located 80 km to the south) and has all season road access within 9 kilometres of the deposit. Although the Company views the 2008 PEA as historical, the underlying resource provides an excellent base from which to work. Previous metallurgical work completed by Canadian Arrow highlighted excellent recoveries and metallurgical properties for the outlined mineralization. The 2008 PEA envisioned a 2,800 tonnes per day combined open pit and UG operation with a capital expenditure of $108 million. The report had outlined a resource of 98 million pounds of nickel and 47 million pounds of copper.
Additionally, there are several untested exploration targets on the property, such as the Kenbridge North target which holds similar geophysical characteristics to the Kenbridge Deposit.
Tartisan Nickel recently commissioned an update of the nickel resource based on current metal prices and dollar exchange rates.
Project Highlights:
- The Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources represent 3,508,000 tonnes at 0.70 percent Ni, 0.35 percent Cu and 0.01 percent Co (54 Mlb Ni, 27 Mlb Cu).
- The Inferred Mineral Resources represent 1,013,000 tonnes at 1.21 percent Ni, 0.56 percent Cu and 0.01 percent Co (27 Mlb Ni, 13 Mlb Cu).
- Life of mine (LOM) processing recovers 200,900 tonnes of nickel concentrate at 15 percent Ni and 66,900 tonnes of copper concentrate at 24 percent Cu. This results in 52.6 million lbs of payable Ni and 30.7 million lbs of payable Cu.
- LOM revenues from net smelter returns are estimated at $837 million and operating costs estimated at $292 million.
- Pre-tax Net Present Value (NPV) is estimated at $183 million using a 5 percent discount rate. Pre-tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is 26 percent.
Don Pancho Property
The Don Pancho Project is in a prolific polymetallic mineral belt in central Peru with several operating mines in the area including the world class Iscaycruz and Yauliyacu polymetallic mines operated by GlencoreXtrata Plc located 50 kilometers to the north-northwest. Additionally, Trevali Mining Corporation’s Santander silver-lead-zinc mine is located 9 kilometers to the east and Buenaventura’s silver-lead-zinc Uchucchacua mine is located 63 kilometers to the north, (10 million ounces of silver produced in 2011). Infrastructure is considered excellent with ready access and a power line crosses the property enroute to the Santander mine.
The Don Pancho deposit was first identified in 1997 and was acquired by application in 2007. To date, $1.5 million has been spent on exploring the property, including extensive surface mapping and sampling. Additionally, a previous owner, Stellar Mining, also conducted a 2,021-meter diamond drilling program across six holes, all of which intersected zinc-lead-silver mineralizations. Results from this drilling program included grades of up to 4.4 percent zinc, 3.3 percent lead and 61 g/t silver over 1.15 meters and outlined an 800 meter by 200 meter exposed breccia zone on the property.
Sill Lake Lead-Silver Property, Ontario
The Company purchased a 100 percent interest in 13 single cell mining claims in the Vankoughnet Township of Sault Ste. Marie Mining District in Ontario, comprising the Sill Lake Project covering 372.8 ha. The purchase of the Sill Lake Lead-Silver claims is in keeping with the company’s strategy of acquiring advanced properties with long term potential. Sill Lake is an excellent project to generate shareholder value in the short term through exploration and resource development.
The Sill Lake Lead-Silver Project consists of 13 single cell mining claims and four boundary cell claims which represents 372.8 hectares. Lead-silver mineralization was discovered at Sill Lake in 1892, when a 30m adit was driven to a 17m internal shaft, with approximately 40m of lateral development to exploit a lead-silver vein. This was later defined by other explorers including some 3750m of diamond drilling along a defined steeply dipping mineralized trend some 850m in length, with mineralized widths varying between 1.5m and 4.5m. The Project has seen two distinct periods of underground development and production and it is estimated that 7,000 tonnes of ore containing lead and silver were mined. In 2010, a historical NI 43-101 Technical Report gave a measured and indicated mineral resource of 112,751 tonnes at 134 g/t silver; 0.62 percent lead, and 0.21 percent zinc. The historical resource estimate used a silver cutoff grade of 60 g/t; but no cutoff grade for the base metal content was used.
The Company has completed a Spectral Analysis survey and a Synthetic Aperture Radar survey over the Sill Lake Lead-Silver Project in early 2020. The most abundant minerals on the Sill Lake mining claims were seen to be saponite, a clay mineral from hydrothermal alteration as well as orthoclase feldspar and kaolinite, the hydrothermal alteration product of orthoclase. Principal minerals characteristic of the lead-silver vein were determined to be galena and goethite. Galena is the principal ore mineral of the low-alpha lead on the Sill Lake Project, while goethite is the principal alteration product of sulphides like galena.
Turtle Pond Project
Tartisan Nickel holds 100 percent interest in the Glatz, Night Danger Nickel-Copper Claims located approximately 70 km from its flagship Kenbridge Nickel Deposit. The claims project is located in an area of excellent infrastructure consisting of 16 claim units totalling 400ha host to the historical Glatz and Night Danger nickel-copper showings. The Turtle Pond project area of nickel-copper mineralization lies on the eastern flanks of the Atikwa Batholith in a similar geological setting to the company’s Kenbridge deposit and provides Tartisan with an additional target to develop resources in this region.
The Turtle Pond property was identified with nickel-copper sulphide mineralization in twelve trenches along a 700 metre trend at the Glatz nickel copper showing. In 2007, Canadian Arrow Mines Limited conducted a surface grab sampling program that produced the following results: 1.28 percent Ni, 0.26 percent Cu re Glatz Trench 3; 0.99 percent Ni, 0.18 percent Cu re Glatz Trench 3; 0.39 percent Ni, 4.06 percent Cu re Trench 4. The mineralization varies from disseminated sulphides to narrow semi-massive sulphide bands. Six short drill holes were completed at that time with hole GZ-09- 02 encountering 0.34 percent Ni, 0.16percent Cu and 0.02 percent Co over 5.9 m from 45.0-50.9 m.
Investments
Class 1 Nickel & Technologies Inc (CSE:NICO): Alexo-Kelex Nickel Project
The Company signed a Definitive Purchase Agreement with Class 1 Nickel & Technologies Inc. of Perth, Western Australia, formally “VaniCom”, for the sale of a 100 percent interest in the Alexo-Kelex Nickel Project located near Timmins, Ontario. The Alexo-Kelex Project produced 30,138 tonnes of ore averaging 1.92 percent nickel containing 1.3 million pounds of nickel in 2004 and 2005. Historically, the Alexo Deposit produced an additional 57,000 tonnes at 3.6% nickel for a total of 4.5 million pounds of contained nickel.
The Alexo-Kelex Project contains an NI 43-101 compliant resource of some 243,000 tonnes of 1.08 percent nickel for a contained 5.775 million pounds of nickel. The resource also contains 268,000 pounds of copper and some 202,000 lbs of cobalt at lower grades.
The deposits are classified as Kambalda-style named after similar type-deposits occurring in Western Australia. The Alexo and Kelex deposits are composed of massive to semi-massive nickel sulphide accumulations inhabiting basal embayments along the footwalls of steeply dipping komatiitic ultramafic volcanic flows. The massive, semi-massive sulphides are overlain by stringer, net-textured, blebby and lower grade disseminated sulphide haloes extending upwards and away from the contact. The flows contact with intermediate volcanic country rocks. Other komatiitic hosted nickel sulphide deposits and occurrences in the area include the Redstone, McWatters, Hart, Langmuir 1 and 2, and Texmont.
Peruvian Metals Corp. (TSXV:PER)
Peruvian Metals (TSXV:PER) owns an 80 percent interest in the Aguila Norte Process Plant that is strategically located just off the Pan American highway, near Peru’s second largest city, Trujillo. Abundant small-scale mining activity occurs in northern Peru but there are very few independent processing facilities available. The Aguila Norte mineral processing plant hosts crushing, milling, gravity separation and flotation circuits with an initial throughput capacity of 100 tonnes per day. Peruvian Metals is currently processing high-grade polymetallic material and delivering high-value concentrates available for sale to the Peruvian metal trading market for miners. Peruvian Metals and its experienced Peruvian team have been identifying multiple sources of mineral feed to fill the initial process plant capacity. The company is well advanced to receive full permits and licenses which will enable the expansion of the Aguila Norte Process Plant. Expansion is expected to be funded via internal cash flow from plant profitability.
Management Team
D. Mark Appleby - President & CEO, Director
Mr. Appleby was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Tartisan Nickel Corp. in December 2010. Mr. Appleby has over 30 years of experience in a variety of disciplines relating to investment banking, corporate finance and the capital markets. Mr. Appleby’s career began in 1983, where he served as an intern at Manulife in the equity and fixed income departments. In 1987 he joined First Boston Canada Ltd., where he reached the position of Vice-President-Bond Trading. Subsequently, Mr. Appleby has worked as an investment executive with Scotia Mcleod Inc., and is co-founder of The Atlantis Group, a Company specializing in a variety of disciplines including the resource sector. Mr. Appleby was also a Director of Guyana Goldfields Inc. [TSX: GUY] for five years.
Omar Gonzalez - Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Gonzalez has over 20 years’ experience in audit & assurance in South America, including 5 years of public and private audit practice, financial analysis, and corporate development in Canada. He is bilingual in English and Spanish and has led many assurance & non-assurance engagements for companies in the energy, mining & natural resources, real estate, manufacturing, and consumer business sector. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant in Venezuela and holds a bachelor's degree with major in Accounting from Santa Maria University.
Yves P. Clement - Director
Mr. Clement is a professional geologist with over 28 years’ experience in the generation, evaluation and development of a wide variety of mineral resources hosted by a broad spectrum of geological environments in Canada, South America, and West Africa. He has held Exploration Manager and VP, Exploration positions in several countries, and has extensive joint venture generation / project management experience and hands-on exploration experience in Archean / Proterozoic greenstone and Andean Cordillera settings, including: greenstone – hosted lode / shear gold, volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS), magmatic Ni-Cu-PGM, low & high sulphidation epithermal Au – Ag, porphyry Cu – Mo & Au – Cu, Cu-Au skarn, Fe Oxide Cu–Au (IOCG), stratabound volcanic redbed copper (Manto-type), intrusion – related gold, and lateritic terranes.
Mr. Clement is currently VP, Exploration of Xtra-Gold Nickel Corp. (TSX: XTG), a junior mineral exploration company focused on gold exploration in Ghana, West Africa. Yves is fluent in Spanish and has extensive exploration / project management experience in Latin American countries, including: Peru, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Mexico. Prior to joining Xtra-Gold, he was VP, Exploration of Ginguro Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: GEG) and VP, Corporate Development of Golden Sierra Nickel Corp. (Private Issuer), where he was responsible for the generation of precious and base metal exploration opportunities in Chile and Ecuador. Mr. Clement received a Geological Engineering Technology diploma from Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology, Sudbury, Ontario; and is a member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (“APGO”).
Douglas M. Flett, J.D. - Director
Douglas M. Flett, J.D., graduated from the University of Windsor Law School in 1972 and was called to the (Ontario) Bar in 1974. He practiced in his own corporate-commercial law firm until 1996 when he retired from practising law for a career in the resource industry. He continues to be a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He has been a Director of KWG Resources Inc. (KWG:CNSX) since 2006. He is a past Director of Kenora Prospectors & Miners Ltd., and is past President and currently a Director of Fletcher Nickel Inc., and a Director of Debuts Diamonds Inc. Mr. Flett is a member of the Compensation and Audit Committees for Tartisan Nickel Corp. He has completed the Rotman Institute of Corporate Directors SME Program.
Dean MacEachern - Advisor
Mr. MacEachern has thirty years of exploration experience, seventeen of which were with Falconbridge Limited (now Glencore), where he was involved with significant nickel, copper and zinc discoveries in the Sudbury and Timmins mining camps. He coordinated numerous base and precious metals exploration programs at several of the world’s major operating nickel copper zinc and PGM mining camps, including the Sudbury, Thompson and Abitibi Nickel Camps, the Kidd Creek VMS Camp in Canada and, the Bushveld PGM Camp in South Africa. He has been involved in developing projects with junior exploration companies in Canada, South America, and Europe for base and precious metal. Mr. MacEachern was the former President & CEO of Canadian Arrow Mines Limited.
Ronald Wortel - Advisor
Mr. Wortel is a finance executive with over 20 years of experience in resource project analysis, transaction due diligence and financing. Starting in 1997, Mr. Wortel provided equity research coverage on the mining equity sector for sell side investment banks: National Bank, Dundee Capital and Northern Securities. Initially he covered the major gold companies and transitioned to the junior resource sector with an emphasis on near term production stories. In 2006, he joined Pathway Asset Management, a resource fund providing flow through funding to exploration companies. Here Mr. Wortel reviewed hundreds of gold and other resource projects as the fund placed over $1 billion into the sector.
