Canada Nickel Company (TSXV: CNC) is buying a 100% interest in the past-producing Texmont nickel property, situated between the company’s Deloro and Sothman properties south of Timmins, Ontario.
“The acquisition of the Texmont property provides near-term smaller scale production potential and is highly complementary to our large-scale Crawford and regional nickel sulphide projects,” CEO Mark Selby said in a news release.
“We are excited by the potential for leveraging the understanding of the geology at Texmont and additional high-grade areas at Sothman and Bannockburn and applying these learnings to our large regional property package.”
Selby also said a number of investors have expressed interest in financing near-term production.
The Texmont property is located 36 km south of Timmins. It contains an ultramafic body with a target geophysical footprint of 1.2 km along strike and 150 metres side. The historic resource was 3.2 million tonnes grading 0.9% nickel in 1971, the start of production. The mine and a 500 t/d mill operated only to December 1972.
The original Texmont mine targeted narrow nickel mineralization in excess of 1.0%. Canada Nickel believes this high-grade material is contained within a larger bulk tonnage deposit that extends to the surface and would support an open pit.
The company has drilled four holes at the former mine, the first three of which intersected sulphide mineralization directly below the overburden. No assays have yet been reported.
Canada Nickel’s flagship Crawford nickel project in northern Ontario is said to contain the fifth-largest nickel sulphide resource in the world. A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) based on prior resource estimates outlined a 25-year operation that would produce 842,000 tonnes of nickel, plus iron and chrome by-products of 21 million and 1.5 million tonnes, respectively.