Canada Nickel Company (TSX.V: CNC) – Case Study

Introduction

Nickel is quickly becoming a hot topic among investors these days as the electric vehicle market is poised to see an increase in demand over the next several years. Mainly because we are becoming more conscientious to the effects of global warming and the carbon footprint we are leaving on the planet. As such, we are now seeing influential people like Elon Musk calling for more production of nickel sulphate to supply the electric vehicle market, but more importantly, in an environmentally friendly way. Currently most of the world’s nickel supply comes from places like New Caledonia, the Philippines and Indonesia, which rely on coal-powered electricity, which is counter intuitive to the concept of greener technologies. This is where an operation like the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt project in Canada could become a major player in the nickel space as they intend to vastly reduce their carbon footprint to the point of NetZero through a range of innovative initiatives.

Summary

Nickel supply and Demand Outlook – A look at world supply and demand, the impacts of the Corona virus and the needs of manufacturers as they apply to the carbon footprint left behind by nickel mining and refining operations.

Project Overview and Exploration – An in depth look at the discovery of the Crawford Ultramafic Complex that led to the formation of Canada Nickel.

Additional assets – Canada Nickel has optioned several large-scale nickel sulphide targets within a short distance of the Crawford deposit from Noble Minerals. With the addition of these 5 targets, Canada Nickel now has the potential to become one of the largest nickel sulphide producers in the world.

Net Zero Carbon – In a world focused on green energy, Canada Nickel is uniquely poised to be able to meet the demand to produce nickel in an environmentally efficient manner and achieve zero carbon or at least close to it. As a result of the unique advantages of the Timmins region with its proximity to zero-carbon hydroelectricity and Crawford being comprised largely of serpentine rock that naturally absorbs CO2 when exposed to air, Canada Nickel has the potential to develop zero-carbon products. Combined with the company’s plans to use an all electric fleet, CNC could become an industry leader in clean mining techniques.

Valuation

The maiden resource on Crawford was based on drilling of just over 20 percent of the ultramafic structure, and already ranked in the top twelve largest nickel sulphide deposits in the world using methods by Wood Mackenzie. But then on October 21st they updated the resource estimate and climbed to number 7 on the global chart with around 50% of the Crawford Ultramific Complex drilled off. The 5 additional targets optioned by CNC could each be as big as Crawford or even bigger and there are signs of Platinum and Palladium associated with these nickel ore bodies that could add further value to this project.

Timmins is a world-class, mining friendly jurisdiction, with a wealth of infrastructure and skilled local labour to support a project of this scale. Mark Selby, Chair and CEO of Canada Nickel, is a well-respected expert on nickel and his experience has already accelerated this project much faster than anyone anticipated. With EV sales continuing to grow and the demand for more environmentally friendly mining at the forefront of the sector, we believe Canada Nickel has a real opportunity to become one of the largest and most efficient nickel producers on the planet.

Nickel Supply and Demand Outlook

At the beginning of the year nickel prices had cooled off from their highs of $18,620 USD per metric ton in November of 2019 and were valued around $14,000 USD to close out the year. While 2019 saw many challenges for the nickel market with trade wars with China and Indonesia’s ban on exports of nickel, the effects were actually rather positive for the price of the ore. Nickel was expected by many to increase in value in 2019 but the aforementioned issues seemed to catapult the ore price and add an element of interest that has been lacking in the space for some time. However, the onset of Covid hindered the growth pattern, almost stalling the price of nickel as the world waits to see what effect it would have on supply and demand.

With Indonesia’s banning of exports, many companies are looking to take advantage of the situation and are ramping up production to meet the demands of both the stainless steel industry and the electric vehicle market. However, many of these operations are in Southeast Asia, the Phillipines, Guatemala, New Caledonia, Germany and Poland, all of whom largely depend on coal and fossil fuels to refine their ore. So while there will be no actual shortage of nickel per say, these producers are emitting a huge amount of CO2 into the atmosphere, which all but makes driving an electric vehicle somewhat redundant .

In fact, Elon Musk himself is taking a stand and offering large contracts to any company that can produce nickel in a responsible and environmentally friendly way. This resent development created a flurry of anticipation which has led to a bullish move in nickel prices, benefitting companies like Canada Nickel who may actually have found a solution to the CO2 footprint left behind by mining operations. This couldn’t have come at a better time as our economy could use a boost in light of the impacts of COVID-19 and the trade wars with China.

It will be interesting to see how the next cycle in nickel plays out with COVID-19 holding the world’s economy hostage, but so far the demand for new vehicles has actually been on the rise due to lowered interest rates brought on by the virus. Once we have a handle on the virus, we could see a surge in the economy unlike anything most of us have witnessed in our lifetime which would bode very well for Nickel producers as stainless steel and class one nickel will be in high demand as the economy recovered from this devastating pandemic.

With the democrats now in control of the U.S green energy will take center stage and ultimately boost projects like Canada Nickel as the demand for nickel is not slowing down any time soon. The next Decade will see a global shift to EV’s and innovations in battery technology will most certainly drive this burgeoning sector to new highs.

Project Overview

Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSX.V: CNC) – is focused on advancing the next generation of high quality nickel-cobalt sulphide and PGM projects to deliver the metals needed to power the electric vehicle revolution and feed the high growth stainless steel market. The company owns 100% of the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide and PGM Project (“Crawford”).

Located in the mining friendly jurisdiction of Timmins, Ontario and within the world famous Abitibi Greenstone belt, the Canada Nickel land package has the potential to become one of the largest nickel sulphide deposits in the world. With only 20 percent of 1 structure drilled, Canada Nickel’s maiden resource already ranked among the 12 largest nickel sulphide deposits in the world. Recent drilling has continued to infill and expand on the higher grade core mineralization, and there are still five more large targets on the land package to explore, which all have similar characteristic to Crawford.

The company was formed in late 2019 as a spin out of Noble Mineral Exploration and listed on the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange in February 2020 at an initial listing price of $0.25 cents per share. The company has quickly made a name for itself with nickel expert, Mark Selby at the helm as Chairman and CEO. Given that Mark was part of the team that brought the Dumont Nickel Project in northern Quebec (formerly owned by RNC Minerals) to a shovel ready status, Mark is perfectly suited for the role at Canada Nickel. The insight and experience he brings have become very apparent as he has navigated his way through this project very quickly. Dumont is comparable to Crawford in terms of grade, size and metallurgy, thus allowing the CNC team, many of whom worked with Mark on Dumont, to leverage some of their previous work into this project.

For many years the property on which the Crawford Nickel deposit is hosted was owned by a logging company and saw little to no exploration activity while the rest of the Timmins area was being heavily explored and drilled in hopes of finding the next big gold mine. Then in 1963, the discovery of the VMS deposit in Kidd Township which ultimately led to the development of the Kidd Creek Mine, about 15 km south of the Crawford Deposit, led to a flurry of exploration in and around Timmins.

INCO Limited, a Canadian mining company and the world’s leading producer of nickel for much of the 20^th century, did the bulk of the exploration work around Crawford Township but they were not interested in low grade high tonnage nickel deposits as the value of these types of deposits were unknown and for the most part they overlooked the potential. So while everyone was looking for the next Kidd Creek, these already identified nickel sulphide targets sat untouched and exploration in these townships all but stopped in the 1980’s until Noble Mineral Explorations acquired the rights to the property in 2011 and dubbed it Project 81.

Originally the property was acquired by Noble because of the Kingsmill Nickel deposit and the Lucas Gold showing. In the first few years they did a range of Geophysics, ran some small drilling campaigns and continued to build out their land package by staking additional claims. Prior to the development of Canada Nickel, Noble had amassed approximately 79,000 hectares of property and tailored their business model to be a project generator whereby they could still maintain exposure to the future success of their property but not have to put out the capital to explore their large land package.  

In 2017, Noble Mineral Exploration completed a 1,031.3 line km airborne helicopter MAG-EM survey and hired Orix Geoscience to conduct a data compilation of all known exploration activities on the property. This ultimately led to a joint venture deal with Spruce Ridge Resources to explore certain targets in Crawford Township, including the Crawford Ultramafic Complex (CUC).

In 2018, a fixed-wing 936.1 line km FALCON©, Airborne Gravity Gradiometer and magnetic surveys were conducted, both covering Crawford Township and the CUC. This was followed by the application of Windfall Geotek’s Artificial intelligence, CARDS technology which all but confirmed the CUC as a high priority target. Once Spruce Ridge received the targets from Windfall, they began a diamond drilling program late in the year that continued into 2019.

This was the point where Mark Selby was introduced to Vance White, CEO of Noble Mineral Explorations. Mark reviewed the information on Crawford and immediately pinpointed several similarities to the Dumont project, which he spent 10 years developing from a greenfield discovery into a construction ready and fully permitted project as CEO of RNC Minerals. Knowing that he could leverage his experience, Mark opted to take part in this project and began to work with Noble and Spruce Ridge to acquire the Crawford Ultramafic Complex under a newly formed subsidiary company that was to be spun out from Noble Mineral Exploration, called Canada Nickel Company.  

As they waited for approval to get a listing on the TSX venture exchange, Vance was able to acquire a long standing 5% royalty on the property held by Franco Nevada. This deal had been in the works for sometime but worked to the advantage of Canada Nickel as it was completed before the spin out. With the October 1st, 2019 announcement that Noble had created a new entity, Canada Nickel Company took control of the drilling program from Spruce Ridge Resources.

Following on from the initial four holes completed in late 2018 and reported in early 2019 (see Noble news release date March 4, 2019), results from CNC’s first nine drill holes, which totaled 5,280 m, were announced by Noble on December 9, 2019. A further 11 holes totaling 7,298 m were announced by CNC on February 28, 2020. Total diamond drilling to up to January 2020 was 14,461.70 m in 25 holes which includes 65.5 m from an abandoned drill hole (CR19-14).

The focus of the 2019-2020 drilling was to extend mineralization along strike, test the northeastern and southwestern extents of mineralization (i.e., contacts), and to test deeper portions of the CUC. To date, diamond drilling has outlined a west-northwest trending (~285-315Az) ultramafic body (largely dunite-peridotite) that is at least 1.74 km in strike length, 225 to 425 metres wide, and more than 650 metres deep. Mineralization remains open along strike to the northwest, and at depth. A north-northwest trending regional sinistral, strike–slip fault terminates the ultramafic body along its southeastern extent. A 3D-Inversion magnetic anomaly, nearly one kilometre deep, has been only partially tested at depth with several drill holes extending beyond the 650 m depth containing intervals of >0.25% Ni. Diamond drilling is on-going on the Property.

On February 27^th, Canada Nickel Company officially started trading on the TSX venture under the ticker symbol CNC. Under the agreement with Noble and Spruce Ridge Resources; Noble would receive 2 million dollars and 12 million shares of CNC and Spruce Ridge was to receive 20 million shares for their stake in the project.

By February 28^th, Canada Nickel had sufficient drilling to put out a maiden resource estimate totaling 600,390,054 tonnes grading at .25% Nickel of Measured and Indicated resource and an additional 310,496,263 tonnes grading .23% Nickel of inferred resource making the Crawford Nickel project the 11^th largest nickel sulphide deposit in the world with only 20% of the structure drilled. On top of the nickel content there is a section of PGM’s that run in parallel to the nickel body. The best hit to date is 2.6 g/t palladium + platinum (1.3 g/t Pd, 1.3 g/t Pt) over 7.5 metres within an overall 1.8 g/t (0.9 g/t Pd, 0.9 g/t Pt) over 12 metres at 123 metres downhole. This structure extends over 1.5 kms and continues to expand as drilling continues.

Within the ore body there is a higher grade core near surface which will allow for higher cash flow in the early years of production. Diamond drill core assay results to date allow for the delineation of the two higher grade (>0.30% Ni and >0.35% Ni) regions within the larger Higher Grade Zone (>0.25%Ni), which in turn are within the larger enveloping Low-Grade Zone (>0.15% Ni), all contained within the host ultramafic body of the CUC. The Higher Grade Zone has a minimum strike length of about 1.57 km, is between approximately 160 and 230 m wide, and contains regions of incrementally higher grade nickel (i.e., >0.30% Ni and >0.35% Ni). The Higher Grade Zone and internal regions of higher grade nickel remain open along strike to the west-northwest and at +650 m depth.

With a great start to the project it was only natural that Mark would look to add some of the other prospective targets within Project 81 that were similar in composition to Crawford as highlighted by the work done by INCO in the 1960’s. Then on March 4^th, Canada Nickel Company announced that they agreed to pay  Noble $500,000 in cash and issue 500,000 Canada Nickel common shares to acquire the Crawford Annex property and the option to earn up to an 80% interest in 5 additional nickel targets within the Project 81 land package and in close proximity to Crawford. 

The Crawford Annex is comprised of 4,909 hectares in Crawford and Lucas Township and the 5 option areas of Crawford-Nesbitt-Aubin, Nesbitt North, Aubin-Mahaffy, Kingsmill-Aubin, and MacDiarmid range in sizes of 903 to 5,543 hectares. If the conditions to earn a 60% interest or 80% interest become satisfied, a joint venture would be formed on that basis and a 2% net smelter return royalty would be granted to Noble.

To understand the significance of acquiring these properties, we need to look at each of the additional 5 targets individually

Additional Assets

Kingsmill

The Kingsmill target is a large serpentinized ultramafic intrusion which is 2.2 km long and between 375-600 metres wide. A thorough review of historical drilling results yielded both significant nickel and PGM intersections and the north side of the structure appears to have the same PGE enrichment as Crawford Main and East Zones: 1.0 g/t PGM over 2 metres from 96 metres within 0.3 g/t PGM over 30 metres from 69 metres in historic hole KML-12-11, 0.8 g/t PGM over 5 metres from 523 metres within 0.5 g/t PGM over 24 metres in historic hole KML-12-07.

Several large portions of the structure remain highly prospective for nickel-cobalt-PGM mineralization:

• The two sections were 1.3 km apart leaving a large portion of the overall structure completely untested.
• There are several intersections which points to the potential for relatively higher quantities of recoverable minerals
• Holes KML-12-06, KML-12-11, KML-12-12 on the Eastern section all contained intersections with significant nickel and sulphur content (which is necessary for formation of nickel sulphide minerals) across wide intersections (see Table 1 below)
• Hole KML-12-03, yielding 0.26% nickel and 0.03% sulphur over 130 metres, was the only hole (of four holes on the Western section) drilled on the northern half of the structure, which has yielded the best mineralized portions of the Crawford Main and East Zones
• Historic hole 27090 also drilled on north side of the structure in 1966 yielded 0.31% nickel over 302 metres (sulphur was not assayed)

The understanding of the mineralogy of these deposits has evolved significantly since the Kingsmill drilling was completed eight years ago, particularly the controls and the deportment of potentially recoverable nickel minerals across the deposit.  Initial mineralogy results from Kingsmill in 2012 were less positive as the test was conducted on one master sample compiled from all drill cores – not taking into account the significant variability in mineralogy between rock types, and that some ultramafic rock will have low amounts of potentially recoverable nickel minerals.

Historical Drill Tables

Kingsmill Selected Historical Drilling Key Nickel Intersections – Holes 6, 11, 12 (Eastern), 3 (Western), Kingsmill Township, Ontario

Kingsmill Selected Historical Drilling Key PGM Intersections – Holes 6, 11, 12 (Eastern), 3 (Western), Kingsmill Township, Ontario

Once the new resource update for Crawford is complete, the historic drilling will be re-logged and mineralogical samples will be selected to understand the deportment of potentially recoverable nickel minerals (pentlandite, heazlewoodite, awaruite).

Crawford-Nesbitt-Aubin

The Crawford-Nesbitt-Aubin Township target consists of two ultramafic units 6 km long and 150-200 metres wide containing serpentinized peridotite and much of it was not assayed. Inco drilling in 1964-66 yielded highlights including narrow intervals of up to 0.35% Ni which tested the edges of the geophysical target. For reference, the Crawford Main Zone resource is 1.7 km long and 225-425 metres wide.

Nesbitt North

Two ultramafic units 3.7 km long by 150-300 metres wide with significant nickel intersections were identified in Nesbitt township. Inco 1966 drilling highlights included 0.28% Ni over 163 m in historic hole 27083. For reference, the Crawford Main Zone resource is 1.7 km long and 225-425 metres wide.

MacDiarmid

A target of 3 km by 150-600 metres wide ultramafic intrusion with serpentinized peridotite has been identified, much of it was not assayed. Highlights include historic hole 18127 which intersected 142 m of mineralized peridotite which was not assayed, and narrow intervals of up to 0.22% Ni over 1.5 m in NRK-65-7 (1965). For reference, the Crawford Main Zone resource is 1.7 km long and 225-425 metres wide.

Mahaffy-Aubin

A target of 8 km by 200-500 metres wide interpreted ultramafic intrusion has been identified, much of it was not assayed. Highlights include historic hole 31901 (1966) which intersected 0.23% Ni over 127 m, and hole T2-80-2 (1980) which intersected 277 m of serpentinized ultramafic rock with no assays reported. For reference, the Crawford Main Zone resource is 1.7 km long and 225-425 metres wide.

Table 2 – Historical Drill Hole Orientation, Canada Nickel Option Properties, Ontario

The addition of these areas gives Canada Nickel a larger footprint to fully develop Crawford as each can potentially host nickel-cobalt deposits that are similar in nature to Crawford. With these additional targets Canada Nickel could grow their resource exponentially and easily become one of the top players in the nickel sector or provide a major an opportunity to secure feed for many years to come.

Then on October 21st, 2020 Canada Nickel announced an updated mineral resource for its 100% owned Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulfide Project which more than doubled it’s mineral resources in both the Measured and Inferred resource categories. This increase pushed CNC up the global ladder to the number 7th largest nickel sulfide deposit globally. Considering that this was achieved on less than 50% of the structures drilled in the CUC, this leads to great optimism for the Crawford deposit and beyond.

In having such great success in exploration, the company opted to get to work and put deals in place with the local first nations in the Wabun tribal council and initiate a working relationship with the Taykwa Tagamou, which would see them take an active role in building the hydro electric infrastructure required to get the project into production. This was a big step for this project as community acceptance is a big part of developing projects and so far CNC is way ahead of the game.

Then on January 25th, 2021, Canada announced very positive results from its latest metallurgical testing. The first phase of metallurgical testing was designed to confirm initial flowsheet design, which uses a typical nickel sulphide ultramafic flowsheet of two stages of grind-deslime-float with magnetic separation to support recovery of magnetic minerals. Subsequent testing during 2021 will continue to optimize various flowsheet parameters towards a final flowsheet for the feasibility study expected by year-end 2021.

For more information on the flowsheet and recoveries please [click here]

Clearly having a subsiduary of Glencore has paid off because they signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with Glencore Canada Corporation in order to examine the potential use of Glencore’s Kidd concentrator and metallurgical site in Timmins, Ontario for the treatment and processing of material mined from Canada Nickel’s 100% owned Crawford Nickel-Cobalt project located 40 km north of Glencore’s operations. This was a big step forward as the economics of the project will be far more robust not having to build everything from scratch and should have a very positive effect on the project as a whole. This also bodes well from the perspective of having a major establish a working relationship with Canada Nickel Co.For more information on the MOU [Click Here]

Long life deposits are more sought after today than ever before and since Canada Nickel’s inception a short time ago, they have already garnered an awful lot of attention. Timmins is in need of a major mining operation with Glencore’s Kidd Creek Mine scheduled for closure by 2023, CNC is proving very quickly that Nickel may have a role to play in the Timmins mining camp’s future. Being that the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulfide Project is located in Canada, in a mining friendly jurisdiction with access to an abundance of local infrastructure, it makes CNC’s project incredibly attractive, especially if they can achieve their strategy of also having a Net Zero Carbon footprint.

NetZero Metals^TM

While driving an Electric Vehicle in fact does produce zero emission, the plants that process the nickel for the batteries used in EV can put out enough carbon to counteract those benefits. Just to build a car battery, weighing 500 kilograms for a sport-utility vehicle, would emit up to 74% more CO₂ than producing an efficient conventional car if it is made in a factory powered by fossil fuels. Therefore, car manufacturers are looking to nickel producers outside of China and Indonesia, as these are the producers who are very reliant on coal powered plants to refine the nickel for use in Electric Vehicles.

In the June 2020 quarterly results investor call for Tesla Motors, CEO and founder Elon Musk called out to nickel miners to find more eco friendly ways to mine nickel. He went as far as to say on the call that there would be “a large contract offered to anyone who can mine nickel in a more environmentally friendly way”. His comments reverberated around the world with nickel miners and Canada Nickel was very quick to respond by engaging Elon through social media. Naturally, this created a bit of a stir that saw CNC’s share price triple in a matter of days.

Little did everyone know that Canada Nickel had already been working on a process by which they could reach a net zero carbon foot print due to the mineralogy of their deposit. On July 27, 2020, Canada Nickel announced the creation of a wholly-owned subsidiary called NetZero Metals, to begin the research and development of a processing facility that would be located in the Timmins, Ontario region with the goal of utilizing existing technologies to produce zero-carbon nickel, cobalt and iron products. They have also had the foresight to apply for the trademarks “NetZero Nickel”, “NetZero Cobalt” and “NetZero Iron”.

A mining company purporting to produce nickel, cobalt and iron products with zero carbon emissions? It seems too good to be true, until you really start to break down the viable options of what Canada Nickel Company is trying to do.

As noted above, the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide mineralogy is favorable, as the tailings will naturally absorb CO2 once exposed to air due to the high serpentine content in the ore body. This is a monumental advantage that omits the need for carbon sequestration of the tailings material as it does it naturally. To add to this, they can also take the CO2 produced from the refining process and re route it to filter through the tailings, thus reducing CO2 emissions even further.

Additionally, the Crawford Nickel Cobalt project is conveniently located near hydroelectricity generation, which will supply the power needs of an all electric fleet of mining equipment such as electric trolley trucks, scoops and dump trucks in place of diesel powered vehicles. Furthermore, Canada Nickel plans to build the refinery near their operations, thus omitting transportation costs, inefficiencies and further lowering the operation’s impact on the environment.

Management

Mark Selby, Chairman, CEO & Director

Mr. Selby was formally President & CEO of RNC Minerals (Royal Nickel Corporation) where he led a team that successfully raised over $100 million and advanced the Dumont nickel-cobalt project from initial resource to a fully permitted, construction ready project. He has held a number of senior management roles with Quadra Mining, Inco, and Purolator Courier, and was a partner at Mercer Management Consulting. Since 2001, Mr. Selby has been recognized as one of the leading authorities on the nickel market.  He graduated from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) and has also served on the boards of multiple junior mining companies and is currently a Director and Chair of Orford Minerals.

Steve Balch, VP Exploration

Steve is an Ontario registered geoscientist with 32 years experience in geophysics, specializing in the magnetic and electromagnetic methods, but also with experience in large exploration compilations. After working at Inco for six years in the Sudbury Basin and at Voisey’s Bay, Steve joined Aeroquest in 2001 and helped develop the AeroTEM system, focusing on the on-time measurements of the linear triangular waveform. In 2007, Mr. Balch founded Triumph Instruments and developed the AirTEM system, a multi-coil helicopter-borne EM system that is now in use in Mexico, China, Canada and Eastern Europe. Steve has also been active in borehole geophysics and has worked to develop new technology including north-seeking gyros, temperature compensated induction conductivity probes, UAV-based magnetometers and high sensitivity magnetic gradiometers.

Christian Brousseau,Project Director

Mr. Brousseau has close to 30 years of experience with engineering, design and construction in the Canadian mining industry, including over 6 years as project Director for the Dumont Project, three years as the Engineering and Construction Manager for Detour Gold. Prior to Detour, he held various construction management positions at Osisko’s Malartic Project (now owned by Agnico Eagle and Yamana) and at Goldcorp’s Éléonore Project. Mr. Brousseau also spent eight years at Falconbridge supervising and managing various capital projects at Sudbury, Raglan, Kidd Creek and the Horne Smelter.

John Leddy, Director

John is Senior Advisor, Legal and Strategic Matters at Royal Nickel Corporation. Mr. Leddy has over 20 years’ experience as a business lawyer and in private equity, specializing in M&A, capital raising / structuring and other strategic transactions. He is a former Partner in the Business Law Group (M&A) at Osler, a leading Canadian corporate law firm. Mr. Leddy is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, a director of Salt Lake Mining Pty. Ltd and Orford Mining Corporation, and a member of the Audit Committee of Magneto Investments Limited Partnership.

Russell Star, Director

Russell has over nineteen years of corporate finance, investment and business development experience and has held senior positions and advisory roles with financial institutions including RBC Capital Markets, Scotia Capital, Orion Securities, and Blackmont. After leaving Bay Street, Russell held senior management roles with Cayden Resources (successfully acquired by Agnico Eagle Mines Limited in 2014), Auryn Resources, and Pivot Pharmaceuticals.  He has also served on the Board of multiple junior mining companies.  Mr. Starr holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, a Master of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Victoria, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Queens University. Mr. Starr was also a PhD candidate at McGill University in Econometrics.

David Smith, Director

David is Senior Vice-President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Agnico Eagle and has held this position since 2012. He has also held the position of Senior Vice-President, Strategic Planning and Investor Relations. Prior to joining the Company’s investor relations team in 2005, Mr. Smith, a Professional Engineer, was a mining analyst and held a variety of mining engineering positions in Canada and abroad. He is a Chartered Director holding a Directorship with Sprott Resource Holdings Inc. and is formerly a Director at eCobalt Solutions Inc. He holds a B.Sc. (Queen’s University) and M.Sc. in Mining Engineering (University of Arizona).

Mike Cox, Director

Mike has over thirty years of experience in Base Metal operations with Inco Ltd and Vale SA. He has held a number of senior leadership positions in Europe, Canada and Asia including the oversight of operations which have delivered nickel products to consumers for use in multiple generations of nickel batteries. Most recently, Mr. Cox was Head of UK and Asian Refineries at Vale with responsibility for a portfolio of precious metal and nickel refineries. He is now a Managing Partner at CoDa Associates, a consultancy that provides a range of advisory services to the corporate and public sectors in Europe and Asia. Mr. Cox holds a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry and an MBA, both from the University of Glamorgan.

Jessie Liu-Ernsting, VP Corporate Development and Investor Relations

Jessie has over 15 years of experience in the mining industry, spanning capital projects engineering, debt capital markets, private equity and corporate strategy. Ms. Liu-Ernsting was most recently on the corporate development team at Hudbay Minerals, responsible for formulating and executing on corporate strategy. Jessie previously spent over five years at Resource Capital Funds, sourcing, evaluating, executing and managing investments, gaining expertise in a wide range of commodities and mining services. Before RCF, Jessie provided debt financing solutions in CIBC’s mining corporate credit group. Prior to CIBC, Jessie’s experience at Hatch ad Golder spanned all levels of mining and mineral processing operations design around the world and the development of mining innovation R&D projects. Jessie is a Professional Engineer who holds an Electrical Engineering degree from Queen’s University, and a Schulich School of Business Mining, Finance and Strategy MBA graduate.

Jill Stroeder, Director, Communications & Community Relations

Jill brings over 15 years of experience in corporate communications, investor relations and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining CNC, Jill was the Communications Manager at Australian nickel-copper-cobalt producer IGO Limited and has also previously worked for global mining companies OceanaGold, South32 and Sundance Resources. Ms. Stroeder holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Applied Communications in Public Relations, a Diploma of Investor Relations and is certified as a Strategic Communications Management Professional by the International Association of Business Communicators.

Robert Suttie, CFO

Robert is the Vice President at Marrelli Support Services, possessing more than 20 years of experience, ten of which were in public accounting prior to his tenure with the Marrelli organization. Mr. Suttie specializes in management advisory services, accounting and the financial disclosure needs of the Marrelli group’s public client base. In addition to the Company, Mr. Suttie also serves as CFO for a number of other junior mining companies listed on the TSX and TSX-V, leveraging his skills and experience to become integral to the reporting issuers.

Share structure

Conclusion

For all the aforementioned reasons, Canada Nickel is a very attractive mining operation for battery makers or car manufacturers like Tesla who are in search of eco friendly solutions with long life potential to feed their growing demand for class 1 nickel sulphate. As the world becomes more conscious about our impact on the environment, future mining operations like the one Canada Nickel is proposing to develop will set a new benchmark for best practice sustainable mining across the globe. Going green is not a fad that will come and go like bell bottom jeans, it is a necessity to preserve our way of life for generations to come and what better place for something like this to surface than in Canada.  

Catalysts

• Additional Step out drilling at Crawford
• Resource updates in 2021
• PEA expected in Q1 2021
• Exploration of the additional targets outside of Crawford (option properties)
• Feasibility study by year end 2021
• Potential suitors showing interest in the project
• Green technology developments through NetZero Metals Inc.

For more information

Please visit the Canada Nickel Company profile @ Insidexploration.com/cnc/ or visit the Company’s website @ https://canadanickel.com/ and follow them at:

Twitter – https://twitter.com/CanadaNickel

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/canada-nickel/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/CanadaNickel

Disclosure

Canada Nickel is a Sponsor of Insidexploration, however the thoughts and opinions expressed are the authors and do not represent that of the company. The Author may also buy and sell the stock at any point in time without warning.

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