Canada Nickel Company Inc. [TSXV-CNC; OTCQX-CNIKF] reported robust recovery and concentrate quality results from the first set of metallurgical tests on samples from the Mann Northwest property, Ontario.
. The results were achieved using the standard flowsheet developed for the Crawford Nickel Sulphide Project.
Highlights: First two metallurgical tests at Mann deliver strong recovery and concentrate quality: Overall nickel recoveries of 58% and 59%. Nickel and magnetite concentrate grades in line with expectations.
Mark Selby, CEO, said, “We are very pleased by the first tests at Mann Northwest which achieved overall nickel recoveries of 58% and 59% and achieved expected nickel and iron concentrate grades. These initial results at Mann Northwest, along with our earlier success achieved at Reid using the standard flowsheet developed for Crawford, demonstrate the potential to leverage our development work at Crawford across the portfolio of targets throughout the Timmins Nickel District.”
Canada Nickel is in the process of completing the earn-in of an 80% interest in the Mann property, with the remaining 20% owned by Noble Mineral Exploration Inc. [TSXV-NOB; OTCQX-NLPXF], located 22 km east of Crawford, 20 km south of Cochrane, and 45 km northeast of Timmins, covering the Mann Township. Within the property, there are three large ultramafic bodies, each of which has a target geophysical footprint larger than the 1.6 km2 footprint of Crawford. Mann Northwest has a target footprint of 6.0 km2; Mann Central is 3.1 km2, and Mann Southeast is 4.1 km2. To support the on-going exploration efforts at the Mann property, metallurgical test work has been initiated.
Recovery results of the first two open circuit tests from the Mann Northwest property on samples had head grades of 0.29% and 0.30% nickel. The samples were tested at a third-party lab to evaluate the metallurgical potential of the property. Both samples delivered strong recovery performance, with total nickel recoveries of 58% and 59% and iron recoveries of 44% and 48%.
Cobalt recoveries were 15% and 28% and chromium recoveries were 10% in both tests. More than half of the recovered nickel was recovered to nickel concentrates with an average grade greater than 38% nickel. Iron concentrate grades averaged 58% and 62% iron in the two tests. The Company will follow a similar metallurgical program path as it did with Crawford and begin a variability open circuit testing program to confirm operating parameters and performance and then begin locked cycle testing to confirm metallurgical performance and concentrate grades and recovery to be used in future engineering studies.
The samples were selected as higher grade, well-serpentinized dunite samples and confirmed the potential to transfer the Crawford metallurgical process to the Mann ultramafic nickel mineralization. The standard test procedure from the Crawford Feasibility Variability Program was used including grind sizes, reagent dosing strategies and flowsheet layout.
Sample 1 was taken from drill hole MAN23-03 from 200 to 273 meters and Sample 2 was taken from MAN23-02 from 112 to 164 metres.
Canada Nickel Company is advancing the next generation of nickel-sulphide projects to deliver nickel required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets. Canada Nickel Company has applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero NickelTM, NetZero CobaltTM, NetZero IronTM and is pursuing the development of processes to allow the production of net zero carbon nickel, cobalt, and iron products.
Canada Nickel is currently anchored by its 100%-owned flagship Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project in the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp.
