A comprehensive exploration program is underway at North American Nickel's (NAN:TSXV) Maniitsoq nickel-copper-cobalt-PGM project in southwest Greenland.
This morning, the company announced the results of the completed geophysical, electromagnetic and gravity surveys which have confirmed both the presence of nickel mineralization found by previous drilling and also identified new anomalies.
The Sentient Group, an Australian private equity firm, owns over 40% of NAN shares. In May 2013, Sentient invested $3.4 million in a 20 million unit $0.17 financing (with a $0.21 half warrant).
Today shares are trading at $0.50 (nearly 200% higher).
The electromagnetic and gravity surveys were focused on two key areas, the Imiak Hill conduit complex (IHCC) and Fossilik. These targets were identified using helicopter-borne time domain electromagnetic surveys which proved to be more accurate than the previously used fixed-wing method and have helped revive nickel exploration in the remote Arctic.
The company also has two drills turning at the project with one dedicated to the IHCC target and another testing regional targets in the massive Greenland Norite Belt.
A new high-grade nickel discovery was made on the company's IHCC target. Intersections of 18.62m of 4.31% Ni and 123.94m of 0.81% were encountered in recent drilling, making it one of the most significant new early-stage discoveries in the nickel space.
President and interim CEO, Dr. Mark Fedikow, commented: "The addition of gravity surveying this year represents a valuable new tool for exploring the company's large Maniitsoq property where noritic intrusions occur over a 75 km strike length. Identification and correlation of gravity highs with two of the known mineralized norite intrusions in the belt indicate that gravity will be very useful in mapping the subsurface extents of mafic and ultramafic intrusions and in helping to understand the distribution of related nickel-copper sulphide mineralization."
Preliminary gravity results indicate that anomalies exist in both the Imiak and Fossilik areas and correlate with noritic intrusions identified from both surface mapping and drilling. Several of the known nickel-copper occurrences are seen at the margins of these gravity highs.
Several gravity highs at the IHCC target have been observed to be coincident with, or flanking, the mapped and interpreted norite outcrops. One of these gravity highs correlated with the mineralized Spotty Hill norite intrusion. This gravity high extends south of the current Spotty drilling and also extends to the northwest toward the Imiak North area.
Another large and more complex double-lobed gravity high lies in the immediate vicinity of the mineralized Imiak Hill norite intrusion. One lobe of this gravity high extends south of the Imiak Hill drilling and the other lobe lies to the northwest.
The Fossilik target is located 9 km southwest of the IHCC target and a large 1.5 km by 2.5 km gravity high has been identified there. Surface nickel occurrences and nickel mineralization intersected in historic drilling and past drilling by the company are observed to lie near the margins of this gravity high.
In mid-June, after closing a nearly $10 million financing, Richard Mark (then President, CEO and Chairman) announced his resignation from the company stating: "I will miss the day to day intensity of running North American Nickel, but must admit, I look forward to spending more time with my wife and daughter this summer."
Dr. Fedikow replaced Mr. Mark on an interim basis and the company continues to search for a suitable full-time CEO.
The company has a powerful advisory board including the former Chairman and CEO of Falconbridge, Mr. Alex Balogh (also an advisor to the Sentient Group) and Dr. James M. Patterson who was formerly the Vice President, Exploration for FNX Mining and part of the team that revived the company from a market capitalization of $20 million to over $2.5 billion.