Swapping aluminum for copper will maintain China’s resources, group says
China depends on overseas imports for 60% of its aluminum resources as opposed to 70% of its copper resources.
Grid Metals (TSXV: GRDM) has raised the indicated tonnage by more than a third at its MM copper-nickel project in southeast Manitoba.
The combined indicated open pit resources increased by 12.4 million tonnes or 37% to 46.2 million tonnes compared with an estimate of 33.8 million tonnes from 2014, the company said on Monday.
The project, previously called Makwa Mayville and located about 180 km northeast of Winnipeg, holds contained metal of 317 million lb. copper, 263 million lb. nickel and 452,000 oz. combined palladium-platinum-gold, Grid said in a release.
This increase is largely attributable to including recent infill drilling at Makwa, improved metallurgical recoveries from tests and a more favourable United States to Canadian dollar exchange rate, the company said.
“The resource estimate announced today provides impetus for further exploration and continued expansion of the MM copper/nickel project,” Grid CEO Robin Dunbar said. “The MM project resource is a conventional and near surface copper-nickel sulphide resource with readily apparent upside.”
The copper-rich Mayville and the nickel-rich Makwa are suitable for open pit mining, Grid says. Both have underground potential as well.
The Mayville indicated resource is 32.0 million tonnes grading 0.16% nickel, 0.4% copper, 0.01% cobalt, 0.13 gram palladium per tonne, 0.05 gram platinum and 0.05 gram gold. No inferred resource was reported at Mayville.
The Makwa indicated resource is 14.2 million tonnes grading 0.48% nickel, 0.11% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.37 gram palladium and 0.1 gram platinum (or 0.75% nickel equivalent). There was also an inferred resource of 18,000 tonnes grading 0.23% nickel, 0.04% copper, 0.01% cobalt, 0.11 gram palladium and 0.04 gram platinum.
Shares in Grid Metals closed C$0.01 higher apiece on Monday at C$0.08, valuing the company at C$16.3 million. They’ve traded in a 52-week range of C$0.06 to C$0.18.
Grid also holds the adjacent Donner Lake lithium project, for which it’s planning to submit a mining permit application late this year and complete a preliminary economic assessment. The company has a lease agreement on the idled True North mill held by 1911 Gold (TSXV: AUMB) to process the lithium. It’s also been discussing with Sinomine to use the closer Tanco mill.
About 100 km south of Donner Lake lies the Falcon West lithium project where last week Grid reported its first drill results. Drill hole ADL24-21 at the ArtDon target cut 3.7 metres grading 2.83% lithium oxide (Li2O) from 4.4 metres depth, the company said.
“We see tremendous synergies between our copper/nickel and lithium project development plans,” Dunbar said. “We continue to build the mineral resources necessary to develop an important critical metals production and processing hub in a tier 1 mining jurisdiction.”
