The Northern Miner's new article on North American Nickel, Aug 13-19, 20120 Vol 98, No. 26

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august 13-19, 2012 • VOL. 98, NO. 26 • SINCE 1915
North American Nickel’s
interstellar story at Maniitsoq
By Matthew Keevil
VANCOUVER — It is not often that a 2% nickel and 0.43% copper at the ited anomalies at the time, though resam-
mining company finds itself headlining Quagssuk target in hole 3; and 13 metres pling of the historic core by Cominco and
space publications and astronomy jour- of 2.24% nickel and 0.63% copper at the Falconbridge demonstrated a relatively
nals, but that is exactly what happened Fossilik target in hole 1. high nickel tenor in the sulphides — with
to North American Nickel (NAN-V, Cominco flew a large portion of the Falconbridge’s work showing 8% nickel
WSCRF-O) when the Geological Survey Greenland norite belt in 1995 with a Geo- in 100% sulphide. According to Mark the
of Denmark and Greenland announced tem fixed-wing airborne electromagnetic companies were on the right track, but
that the company’s Maniitsoq nickel- system. The company discovered lim- lacked the necessary technologies.
copper project was the site of the Earth’s
oldest-known meteorite impact, dating
back 3 billion years.
Maniitsoq is located on Greenland’s
southwestern coast — around 160 km
north of Nuuk, the country’s capital —
and consists of 4,800 sq. km of exclusive
exploration licences. Data on the site
reaches as far back as the 1960s, including
geophysical work by Falconbridge and
Cominco in the late 1990s.
“What impressed me about the project
was that Falconbridge reviewed all 119
drill holes that a company from Denmark
had completed in the sixties,” chairman
and CEO Rick Mark explains. “It’s really
unusual for a company of our size to get
our hands on solid information for a land
package that big. Sometimes you see rock
sampling, but to have that much historic
core was quite something — I mean, it is
literally ten years’ worth of work.”
Historic drill work was completed by
a private company from Denmark called
Kyrolitselskabet Oresund in the mid-
1960s, and includes 6,287 metres of drill-
ing at an average depth of 60 metres.
The work focused on exposed sul-
phide mineralization and associated
electromagnetic anomalies. Historic
North American Nickel
assay results include: 10 metres grading
North American Nickel’s Maniitsoq nickel-copper project on Greenland’s southwestern
2.7% nickel and 0.6% copper at the Imiak coast.
Hill target in hole 9; 5 metres carrying
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“We looked at the historic airborne distract from the story. But when we Mark says working in Greenland is
data, and figured probably two-thirds of made the announcement it ended up on similar to working in the Canadian Arc-
the Cominco stuff wouldn’t have seen a these space-related websites and all over tic, though he is quick to point out that
thing because they had to fly too high the place, so we’re getting some more transporting fuel and supplies to camp
and too fast,” Mark comments. “We were exposure because it is a neat idea.” is easier because of the area’s nearby
sort of familiar with that because we’ve To fund its 2012 exploration program, international airport, and the regional
worked with the Geotech’s VTEM sys- North American Nickel closed a US$3.4- port is ice free year-round. The company
tem in the past, and we’ve told the ‘low million private placement with Sentient has a four-month exploration window
and slow’ story with helicopter technol- Global Resources Fund in late May. similar to operations in the Canadian
ogy for years. So with the helicopter- Sentient received 20 million units at 17¢ North, though it’s possible to set up win-
born electromagnetic technology and per share. ter camps and extend work to 10 months,
modern computing power, suddenly The company’s first step was to com- if the project moves to more advanced
these anomalies are popping up.” plete helicopter-flown VTEM surveys. stages.
The story’s focus shifted slightly fol- North American Nickel received the re- North American Nickel maintains a
lowing news that North American Nickel sults from its airborne geophysical work tight share structure with the Sentient
was sitting on a major meteor impact site. on July 24, and found that Maniitsoq con- group and VMS Ventures (VMS-V,
Anyone familiar with the Sudbury basin tained 50 conductive zones, many with VMSTF-O) — a company exploring
in Ontario can attest to the potential geo- promising strike lengths. The company similar deposits in Manitoba and Ontario
logical implications of a large-scale me- identified 12 high-priority zones it in- that shares much of North American
teoritic event. Major mining outfits like tends to target in a drill program sched- Nickel’s geological and management
Vale (VALE-N) and Xstrata (XTL-L, uled for mid-August. teams — holding nearly 50% of the com-
XSRAF-O) are still active in what has “The nickel tenure graph is strictly pany’s fully diluted position. VMS and
become one of the richest mineral juris- diagonal, which means it is consistent Sentient also retain a first right, which
dictions in the world for nickel-copper across the entire seventy-five kilo- lets the companies maintain their share
and platinum group metal deposits. metres,” Mark concludes. “Now, at six- structure.
“What we ended up looking at was the to eight-percent nickel, that can only North American Nickel has bounced
original thesis of a long-lasting igneous happen if there are multiple events con- around the 12¢ to 18¢ range since early
event. We hadn’t thought too much tributing to the structure. We’re seeing April. The company received a bit of a
about the impact story in the beginning some light nickel mineralization at sur- boost on results from its airborne geo-
because frankly, we weren’t sure the face, and according to our model the physical results on July 24, when shares
markets would be interested in that side mineralization should drop. And sure jumped 19% to a quarterly high of 22¢ at
of it,” Mark explains. “Of course, it would enough, one hundred sixty metres down presstime on above-average, 231,000-
be interesting to look at something sim- there are three football-field sized anom- share volumes. The company has 77 mil-
ilar to the mineralized camps in the Sud- alies sitting there, and we’re hoping for lion shares outstanding for a $10.5-mil-
bury basin, but we were worried it would nickel sulphide.” lion market capitalization.
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