The Conversation (0)
Nickel Investing
Top 5 Nickel Stocks on the TSX and TSXV (Updated April 2023)
Apr. 28, 2023 09:00AM PST
Which nickel companies have made gains so far in 2023? The Investing News Network looks at the top nickel stocks so far this year.
ABC vector, hodim / Shutterstock
The nickel price trended downward in the first quarter, although it's rebounded slightly moving into Q2.
The Investing News Network spoke to analysts at the end of the period to get their thoughts on the metal's performance and what they think will affect it moving forward. They discussed factors such as oversupply, weaker-than-expected demand from China and doubts about the London Metal Exchange after it suspended trading last year.
“We really need to see Chinese and European stainless steel demand pick up,” said Adrian Gardner of Wood Mackenzie. “Everyone talks about batteries, but stainless steel still accounts for 65 to 70 percent of primary nickel demand.”
Below the Investing News Network has listed the top nickel stocks on the TSX and TSXV by share price performance so far this year. All year-to-date and share price data was obtained on April 26, 2023, using TradingView’s stock screener. The top nickel stocks listed had market caps above C$10 million at that time.
1. SPC Nickel (TSXV:SPC)
Year-to-date gain: 53.85 percent; market cap: C$13.13 million; current share price: C$0.10
SPC Nickel has a portfolio of projects in Canada centered on nickel, copper and platinum-group metals (PGMs). The company’s primary focus is its Lockerby East project in Ontario's Sudbury mining camp. In January, SPC entered into an option agreement with Vale Canada to acquire the Crean Hill 3 property; it is contiguous to Lockerby East’s West Graham deposit, meaning that SPC has been able to consolidate the two deposits. The company also has the Aer-Kidd and Janes projects in Ontario and the Muskox project in Nunavut.
The Crean Hill 3 acquisition drove the company’s share price up early in the year, and in the following weeks it reached a year-to-date high of C$0.13 on February 10.
Although it moved down for much of March, SPC’s share price jumped again on March 27, when exploration results from Phase 1 drilling at West Graham revealed over 7 meters of massive to semi-massive sulfide mineralization in one of the drill holes.
The following day, SPC entered into an option agreement for the right to acquire a 100 percent interest in Bathurst Metals’ (TSXV:BMV,OTC Pink:BMVVF) McGregor Lake and Speers Lake properties in Nunavut. The two assets are part of the Muskox intrusion, which hosts SPC’s Muskox project; SPC plans to consolidate this area as well.
The company’s share price rose to C$0.12 when it released more Phase 1 drill results from West Graham, with a highlight of 2.48 percent nickel and 0.68 percent copper over 7.8 meters within a 143 meter zone of what SPC refers to as “West Graham-style mineralization consisting of 5 to 20% disseminated to blebby sulphides.” Further assays from the 5,000 meter drill program were released on April 26, and the company said it hopes to deliver a combined mineral resource estimate for the West Graham project by 2023’s end.
2. Power Nickel (TSXV:PNPN)
Year-to-date gain: 30.77 percent; market cap: C$30.04 million; current share price: C$0.255
Power Nickel’s goal is to meet the needs of the battery supply chain by setting itself up to supply high-grade nickel from its flagship NISK project in Quebec, Canada, which it says is being developed into “one of the greenest sources of class-1 nickel in history.” In addition to nickel, the project also holds copper, cobalt, palladium and platinum mineralization, all of which are important metals to the battery market.
Power Nickel’s share price rocketed up early in the year on January 31, when the company partnered with Fleet Space Technologies, an Australian microsatellite operator and developer, for exploration at NISK. According to a release, Fleet Space’s ExoSphere sound mapping technology will generate data that can be used to create a full 3D image of the subsurface to a depth of 2 kilometers, giving Power Nickel a “clear, rich image of what resources may be below ground” with a turnaround of as short as four days. The company plans to use this data to increase its drilling accuracy and potentially find new deposits.
Power Nickel’s share price reached a year-to-date high of C$0.36 on February 21 after climbing through the previous weeks. In the months since, Power Nickel has completed the first and second tranches of a C$5 million private placement, the balance of which it expects to close in early May. The company has also continued to release results from its 2022 drilling.
The most recent news came on April 27, when the company announced that step-out holes at NISK show indications of a new mineralized zone. The release also includes the remaining assays from 2022 drilling and the first assays from Power Nickel's winter 2023 program.
3. Nickel 28 Capital (TSXV:NKL)
Year-to-date gain: 13.64 percent; market cap: C$104.46 million; current share price: C$1.25
Nickel 28 Capital is a streaming and royalty company that has an 8.56 percent joint venture interest in the Ramu nickel-cobalt operation in Papua New Guinea and royalty agreements for 13 other projects. Nickel 28 is working towards the anticipated full repayment of its debt for the construction of Ramu in 2024, at which point it says it plans to use net cashflow for dividends and distributions.
Much of the news surrounding Nickel 28 in 2023 has centered around an unsolicited offer from shareholder Pelham Investment Partners and an ensuing conflict surrounding the company’s value and shareholder interests.
On February 8, Nickel 28 announced that a then-unnamed shareholder had proposed a US$15 million private placement financing with the company and demanded a response within two days. According to Nickel 28, the entity's other demands included the reconstitution of its board and the right to appoint two unnamed nominees. Nickel 28 stated that it was “strongly opposed to this opportunistic and coercive proposal,” which its board unanimously rejected.
On March 21, Pelham identified itself and announced a new plan, offering to purchase up to 10 million common shares of Nickel 28 from shareholders for C$1.20 per share, then a 22 percent premium. In the release, the firm said Nickel 28 had mischaracterized Pelham’s proposal. The firm detailed the concerns it had with Nickel 28’s management and said it was “prepared to take an active role in ensuring the future success of the Company, for the benefit of all shareholders.”
On the day of this news, Nickel 28’s share price jumped from C$0.98 to C$1.15 and saw a massive increase in trading volume. Nickel 28 responded the next day, urging shareholders to not sell Pelham their shares as the offer significantly undervalued the company.
Nickel 28 went on to release an in-depth statement on March 29 in which it dug into Pelham, calling the firm’s offer “highly abusive, coercive, misleading, conditional, and prejudicial to the interests of shareholders” and “designed to create uncertainty to entice shareholders to act quickly and contrary to their own interests.” The release also explained the reasons Nickel 28 believes Pelham is acting in bad faith and misleading shareholders as to its intentions.
In April, Nickel 28 introduced a shareholder rights plan that would, if approved, help to ensure shareholders are “treated fairly” with regards to unsolicited takeover bids, and would protect against acquisitions through “creeping bids.” The plan would also allow shareholders to buy common shares at a discount in the case of a person attempting to acquire shares equal to 20 percent or more without complying with the rights plan's provisions. Pelham fired back, calling the plan a “poison pill.”
A week later, Nickel 28 announced its largest-ever cash distribution from Ramu of US$9.7 million and shared its intentions to buy back 7.2 million common shares from the TSX Venture Exchange through a normal course issuer bid. The company said this would “provide an alternative source of liquidity for shareholders without the highly uncertain conditions of Pelham’s ‘mini-tender’ Scheme.”
Pelham’s tender offer expired on April 26 and the firm was ultimately tendered 3.66 million shares. Once it has completed the purchase of those shares, Pelham said it will be the company’s single largest shareholder at 10.5 percent, and as such it called on Nickel 28’s board of directors for a change in course to “reestablish shareholder support.” The company’s share price jumped to a year-to-date high of C$1.25 the same day; its board had yet to respond to this news as of April 28.
4. Flying Nickel Mining (TSXV:FLYN)
Year-to-date gain: 10.71 percent; market cap: C$10.12 million; current share price: C$0.155
Flying Nickel Mining is focused on advancing its Minago nickel-PGMs project in the Thompson nickel belt in Manitoba, Canada. In addition to its nickel resource, Flying Nickel has been working to establish the project’s PGMs resource in 2023 through its PGMs assay program.
Its January 16 announcement of the assay program sent the company’s share price upwards, and it spiked again in mid-February in the lead up to the closing of its private placement offering, hitting a year-to-date high of C$0.24 on February 10.
On March 14, Flying Nickel signed an impact and benefit agreement with the Norway House Cree Nation, establishing a framework for the two to collaborate throughout the Minago project’s lifecycle.
“This project is planned to be the greenest nickel mine in the world and will provide Norway House Cree Nation with benefits including jobs, contract opportunities and a direct financial contribution,” Norway House Cree Nation Chief Larson Anderson said in the release.
More recently, assays for Flying Nickel's PGMs program have begun to come in. So far, the company has reported assays from the first batch of 898 samples and the second batch of 968 samples. According to Flying Nickel, both batches saw significant platinum and palladium intersections, and the first batch returned noteworthy gold values as well..
5. Sherritt International (TSX:S)
Year-to-date gain: 5.77 percent; market cap: C$230.43 million; current share price: C$0.55
Sherritt International is a miner, producer and refiner of high-purity nickel and cobalt, and its primary focus is nickel. The company operates a mine in Cuba and a refinery in Alberta, Canada, both of which are part of its 50/50 Moa joint venture with Cuba’s General Nickel Company. The vertically integrated operation can produce 35,000 metric tons (MT) of nickel and 3,800 MT of cobalt per year.
Sherritt’s share price moved up in early January, reaching an early year-to-date high of C$0.63 on January 20. The company released its 2022 full-year results and 2023 guidance on January 23, reporting that the Moa operations produced 32,268 MT of nickel and 3,368 MT of cobalt. The company called 2023 a transition year for Moa due to the expansion plan, which is expected to be completed in 2024. As such, guidance came in slightly lower at 30,000 to 32,000 MT of nickel and 3,100 to 3,400 MT of cobalt. Sherritt released a more in-depth breakdown of its activities in 2022 on February 8.
At the end of March, Sherritt announced that its updated technical report for Moa includes a proven and probable nickel reserves increase of 110 percent and a life-of-mine extension of 14 years to 2048. Updated after-tax net present values came in at US$812 million for a conservative base-case scenario, and US$1.5 billion in an alternative-case scenario based on analyst price forecasts. These numbers don’t take into account the upcoming expansion, which the company states should raise the net present value and shorten the life of mine by a few years.
Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time news updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Lauren Kelly, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
From Your Site Articles
- Top Battery Metals Stocks on the TSX and TSXV - Investing News ›
- Ways to Invest in Nickel | Supply, Demand and Prices | INN - Investing News ›
- 10 Top Nickel-producing Countries | INN ›
- Nickel Price Forecast: Top Trends that Will Impact Nickel in 2023 ›
- Nickel Price 2022 Year-End Review ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Keep reading...Show less
https://twitter.com/INN_Resource
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-kelly-16a369b3
lkelly@investingnews.com
