Ivanhoe’s Kipushi zinc mine in the DRC officially reopens
The restart marked exactly a century since the mine first went into production.
Flying Nickel Mining (TSXV: FLYN) has provided an updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the company’s 100% owned Minago project in Manitoba that encompasses its first estimation for platinum group metals.
The MRE, prepared to CIM standards, displayed a total measured and indicated resource of 43.4 million tonnes grading 0.72% nickel, 0.2 g/t palladium and 0.09 g/t platinum, for 689.5 million lb. of nickel, 279,330 oz. of palladium and 125,700 oz. of platinum.
Flying Nickel CEO John Lee said this was an “outstanding MRE update” that had the project’s inaugural PGM resource as well as a 42% increase in the in-pit portion of the M&I nickel resource, which had nearly 36 million tonnes grading 0.67% nickel for 531.3 million lb. of contained metal.
Those two factors, Lee added, will be studied further in Minago’s ongoing feasibility study. “In a short time under Flying Nickel’s watch, the Minago project is now known for both its nickel and PGM endowment,” he noted.
The addition of PGM resources is based on assays before 2022, additional assays from the company’s 2022 drill program, as well as the 2023 assay program on historic drill cores. In total, 4,041 metres from 47 holes (drilled prior to 2021) were assayed for PGM in 2023.
This, according to the company, expanded on its existing PGM sample dataset that includes six holes and 1,320 metres of sampling completed by Flying Nickel in 2022 and 70 holes and 9,622 metres of sampling by previous operators.
The Minago project was most recently explored by Victory Nickel, which had been responsible for most of the activities on the property since the 2000s. In early 2021, Silver Elephant Mining (TSX: ELEF) bought the project and soon after spun it out to create Flying Nickel.
To date, about C$50 million has been spent on exploration, historical feasibility study and environmental permitting, most of which by Victory and Flying Nickel.
By midday Thursday, Flying Nickel’s stock had surged 12.5% to C$0.09 a share, for a market capitalization of C$7.9 million ($5.7m).
