The latest resource detection for the W4 deposit at V Nickel's Shaw Dome project in northern Ontario represents an increase of more than 24 million tonnes over the 2010 estimated metal storage.
The open pit and underground measured resources located to the southeast of the W4 deposit are 1.4 million tons, have a nickel grade of 0.98% and weigh 31.1 million pounds. The company said in a media report on Monday that the estimated total resource is 559,214 tonnes, containing 0.98% nickel and weighing 12.1 million pounds.
According to EV, this update contains 72% of the project's resource reserves.
"This is an important step in our effort to accelerate the Clean energy transition with Clean Nickel," Chief Executive Sean Samson said in a news release. "Expanding our total measured, indicated and inferred nickel resources to more than 43 million pounds establishes our two-track strategy of identifying near-surface, high-grade nickel resources and integrating them with the large-scale project at Shaw Dome."
"We have the best of both worlds, including a potential pathway to start production from W4 over the next three to four years and continue to advance the transformation of large-scale CarLang [the Shaw Dome CarLang deposit north of W4]," he added. Shaw Dome is located approximately 25 km southeast of Timmins.
Samson said the resource update will form the basis of the initial economic assessment, but did not give a specific timeline for when the update will be completed. EV Nickel said at a January press conference that CarLang plans to conduct a PEA (preliminary economic survey, the most preliminary study of the feasibility of a mineral project) in the spring.
Estimates for 2010 indicate a total resource of 677,000 tons, 1% nickel and 14.8 million pounds. The inferred resource is 171,000 tons, containing 0.91% nickel and weighing 3.3 million pounds.
The latest resource probe was extended to a depth of 500 meters, up from 400 meters previously. W4 remains open at depth and is in a straight downward trend, the company said.
The company acquired the project from Rogue Resources in March 2021 and has since acquired additional land around it to expand Shaw Dome to 300 square kilometers.
Taylor Combaluzier, an analyst at Red Cloud Securities, said in a research note released Tuesday that Shaw Dome is expected to excavate small-scale high-grade deposits similar to W4 and other large-scale low-grade deposits located in CarLang in the future.
"We believe that the next step for EV Nickel, in addition to passing the PEA to demonstrate the economic benefits of W4, will be to discover additional high-grade deposits at Shaw Dome that could form larger integrated high-grade resources for use by centralized smelters," he said.
