Canadian miner Palladium One has announced it has received a class 1 exploration permit for the Canalask nickel-copper project.
The class 1 exploration permit will allow the company a 12-month term to explore copper and nickel at the site, situated in the Yukon territory of Canada. In this time the company will also conduct preparatory work for future mining activity.
Palladium One plans to clear the access and drill trails that exist on the side mining previously conducted at the site from the 1950s through to the early 2000s. Following this, the company will conduct an electromagnetic survey to assess the area before drill testing. Preliminary assays from a small grab sample at the site have shown over 2% nickel and 6% copper at the site.
Canalask is a single 3,400 hectare block, composed of 179 quartz claims. Palladium One acquired the project in June 2022 from fellow Canadian miner Victoria Gold Corp for C$7.23m ($5.65m).
Palladium One CEO and President Derrick Weyrauch explained the motivation behind achieving the permit. In a statement, Weyrauch said: “Canalask hosts a footwall nickel-copper sulphide deposit of unknown origin, thereby suggesting that a larger deposit is present at depth in the adjacent regional-scale ultramafic dyke. Additionally, Canalask hosts untested geophysical targets.”
Weyrauch continued: “The current field program consists of clearing the older, flat lying lowland access trail and re-establishing pre-existing drill trails for access to the project from the Alaskan Highway located 4-kilometres to the north. Once completed, a ground-based, high resolution EM survey is planned to refine historical geophysical conductors for drill testing.”
In 2017, the Canadian government pledged C$360m ($290m) of investments into road infrastructure in order to aid mining in the region. Beneficiaries include the Whitehorse region of the territory, wherein Canalask is located. Canalask, accessible from the Alaska Highway, is surrounded by a number of other mineral projects in the region. These include further projects owned by Victoria.
