Top 5 Nickel Stocks on the TSX and TSXV (Updated November 2022)

Year-to-date gain: 71.43 percent; market cap: C$20.71 million; current share price: C$0.18

Grid Metals is a nickel explorer and developer working out of Canada’s Manitoba and Ontario provinces. The company holds a portfolio of five projects that all tie into its goal of targeting the battery metals industry. Grid’s flagship project is its Makwa Mayville nickel-copper project, which also hosts platinum-group metals (PGMs) and cobalt mineralization. Near Makwa Mayville is Grid’s Mayville lithium property. The company is also exploring the Donner Lake lithium project and the Campus Creek lithium property. In addition to these, the company owned the Bannockburn nickel property until recently.

The company’s share price rose with nickel to hit a year-to-date high of C$0.23 on March 10. On March 11, Grid Metals released drill results from its Bannockburn nickel property; the best result was 341.7 meters averaging 0.28 percent nickel. In May, the company released the results from 14 drill holes completed at Makwa Mayville.

On June 7, Grid Metals and Canada Nickel Company (TSXV:CNC,OTCQX:CNIKF) announced that Grid would be selling Bannockburn to the latter company. In return, Grid Metals would receive 2 million Canada Nickel common shares. The company has since continued its exploration at Donner Lake, sharing drill results and a project update in late July. On August 22, Grid Metals announced a strategic financing with the goal of raising up to C$8.52 million, which the company completed on September 26. Grid Metals intends to use the proceeds for exploration, and said its focus will be its Makwa Mayville, Donner Lake and Campus Creek projects.

Grid Metals' Q4 news has focused on its lithium projects. In October, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Tantalum Mining, which will perform tests on Grid’s lithium spodumene ore at the Tanco mine. If this is successful, the companies intend to enter into a binding agreement to “split the costs and profits of mining, processing and selling lithium spodumene concentrate to the global market.” On November 9, the company commenced further drilling at Donner Lake.

Year-to-date gain: 28.57 percent; market cap: C$36.59 million; current share price: C$0.54

Magna Mining is advancing its flagship Shakespeare nickel-copper-PGMs project near Sudbury, Ontario, and the nearby Denison project, which includes the Crean Hill past-producing nickel-copper-PGMs mine. It has a permit to build a mine at Shakespeare.

Magna Mining completed a drill program at Shakespeare earlier this year and shared the results from it in October. The assays include the “highest-grade intersection of combined platinum, palladium and gold to date on the Shakespeare project.” That specific assay showed 15.5 grams per metric ton (g/t) platinum, 1.46 g/t palladium and 1.31 g/t gold over 0.35 meters.

On November 7, Magna Mining announced the closure of its acquisition of Lonmin Canada, which owns the Denison project, including the Crean Hill past-producing mine on the site. The next day, Magna released the mineral resource estimate for Denison, which includes an indicated resource of 500 million pounds of contained nickel. These news items shot the company’s share price up, moving from C$0.36 on November 7 to C$0.48 overnight. It continued to climb to a year-to-date high of C$0.55 on November 11.

On November 17, Magna began a drill program at the Crean Hill site. According to the company, three holes were previously drilled there, with one intersecting massive sulfide mineralization.

Year-to-date gain: 17.07 percent; market cap: C$198.64 million; current share price: C$0.48

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 MT of nickel and 3,800 MT of cobalt per year.

In February, Sherritt released its 2021 production results and 2022 guidance. Among other details, the company revealed it expects a production increase for nickel, from 31,184 MT in 2021 to guidance of 32,000 to 34,000 MT for this year.

On March 1, the company announced the appointment of decarbonization expert Chih-Ting Lo to its board of directors, and also named Maryse Bélanger as deputy chair. The focus of these changes is to strengthen Sherritt's commitment to ESG matters.

As it’s a nickel-primary company, Sherritt’s share price has seen movement that reflects nickel hitting an all-time-high. Its share price shot up to reach a high of C$0.82 on March 10, but began moving back down in mid-May; it has yet to see those heights again in 2022.

In July, the company released its Q2 results, which it said were driven by higher nickel, cobalt and fertilizer prices. Its Q3 results came in late October, and showed that its portion of finished nickel production from the Moa joint venture was 4,443 MT, with production year-to-date up 6 percent compared to the same period in 2021. As part of the results, the company also shared that its board of directors has approved US$50 million for the Moa expansion.

Year-to-date gain: 16.57 percent; market cap: C$412.99 million; current share price: C$4.08

PolyMet Mining’s flagship project is its NorthMet copper-nickel project, which is also expected to produce cobalt and precious metals. NorthMet is located in Minnesota, US, in the Duluth Complex, and has proven and probable reserves of 290 million MT grading 0.288 percent copper and 0.083 percent nickel. The company is working to secure permits that will allow it to begin mining.

Although PolyMet’s share price performed relatively flatly for the early part of the year, it saw a spike from C$3.74 on March 7 to C$5.06 the following day; the company released no news to accompany this rise. PolyMet fell back down to the C$4 to C$4.50 range in the following weeks, during which time it shared its 2021 financial results and a business update for the first quarter. Shares did experience another jump, hitting a year-to-date high of C$5.17, this time following the March 29 news that Senior Vice President Richard Lock was moving on. PolyMet’s share price fell through the second quarter.

On July 20, PolyMet announced the significant news that it was creating a 50/50 joint venture with Teck Resources (TSX:TECK.A,TSX:TECK.B,NYSE:TECK) subsidiary Teck American. The companies' respective NorthMet and Mesaba projects will be under a single management team, an entity named NewRange Copper Nickel. According to a press release, the projects “represent two of the largest undeveloped clean energy mineral resources in the U.S.”

On November 10, the company released its Q3 results. In the document, PolyMet updates shareholders on its progress towards closing the Teck joint venture, as well as ongoing litigation.

Year-to-date gain: 16 percent; market cap: C$13.218 million; current share price: C$0.145

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 has a gold property called Golden Ivan in BC’s Golden Triangle as well.

Power Nickel hit a high of C$0.27 on March 15 alongside the spiking nickel price. In July, the company released its resource estimate for Nisk, showing the project has an indicated nickel equivalent resource of 31,000 MT and an inferred resource of 18,100 MT.

In September, Power Nickel announced the commencement of a new round of drilling at the project, and completed a private placement worth C$4 million on November 22. The company will use the proceeds to expand the drill program from 5,000 meters to between 12,500 and 15,000 meters. This latest news drove its share price up from C$0.12 to C$0.20 overnight.

“We have made good progress drilling at Nisk,” CEO Terry Lynch said. “The Green holes have been completed and are in for assay. We would expect to get results out starting next week and every two weeks or so after that until the end of February.”