SPC Nickel drills historic Sudbury project en route to late 2023 resource

SPC Nickel (TSXV: SPC) has announced new assay results from drilling at its West Graham project, located in the nickel-copper mining district of Sudbury, Ont. 

West Graham is made up of the West Graham and Crean Hill 3 properties.   

Drilling highlights include 81 metres grading 0.49% nickel, 0.25% copper (0.58% nickel equivalent) from 106 to 187 metres in hole WG-23-026, including the previously reported higher-grade zone that returned 2.48% nickel, 0.64% copper (2.72% nickel equivalent) over 7.9 metres from 170 to 178 metres. 

Hole WG-23-025 cut 47 metres grading 0.56% nickel, 0.3% copper (0.67% nickel equivalent) from 20 to 67 metres, including a higher-grade zone of 0.72% nickel, 0.42% copper (0.87% nickel equivalent) over 23 metres from 42 to 65 metres. 

Hole WG-23-027 returned values as high as 3.3% nickel, 0.23% copper over 0.5 metre. 

A total of 3,600 metres have been drilled across 22 holes to date, and results from nine of these holes have been received from the ongoing 5,000-metre drill program.  

“We are enthusiastic about these assay results from the West Graham project drilling program which continues to return thick mineralized zones with nickel and copper grades that are equal to or better than the historic West Graham Resource,” said SPC Nickel president and CEO Grant Mourre.  

“We expect to continue providing updates on results through the remainder of this quarter. Our focus remains on working towards delivering a combined mineral resource estimate at the West Graham project by the end of 2023,” said Mourre. 

In a note to clients on Thursday, Echelon Capital Markets mining analyst Ryan Walker said the West Graham results both “tend to confirm the thesis that West Graham and Crean Hill 3 indeed represent a single larger deposit and continues to increase the continuity and confidence in such mineralization.”

Walker also pointed out that the West Graham property hosts an historic resource of 8.5 million tonnes of indicated resources at 0.45% nickel and 0.31% copper. The inferred historic resource comes to 2 million tonnes at 0.38% nickel and 0.30% copper.

Vale‘s (NYSE: VALE) adjacent and recently consolidated Crean Hill 3 property has an historic mineral inventory of 16.8 million tonnes at 0.42% nickel and 0.30% copper, Walker added. Under an agreement made in January, the West Graham and Crean Hill 3 were consolidated into one property, with SPC earning a 100% interest in the Crean Hill property from surface down to 550 vertical metres if it delivers a feasibility study for the project by Jun. 30, 2026, and pays Vale US$1 million.

SPC shares were flat on Wednesday in Toronto, trading at 10¢, in a 52-week window of 4¢ and 13¢, valuing the company at $12.5 million.