Canada Nickel Continues to Demonstrate Significant Improvements in Metallurgical Performance at Crawford Nickel Project

Canada Nickel Company Inc. has announced further results of metallurgical testing at its Crawford Nickel Sulphide Project that continue to demonstrate significant improvements in metal recoveries relative to the Preliminary Economic Assessment.

The latest metallurgical test work results are from a sample taken from the South Low Grade region of the Crawford Main Zone. The achievement of 61% nickel recovery from a low grade sample is consistent with results from other samples in the news release dated October 5, 2021. The Company is commencing the first phase of metallurgical variability testing for the feasibility study to better understand metallurgical performance from samples taken throughout the Crawford resource.

Mark Selby, Chair and CEO said, “These metallurgical testing results continue to demonstrate the potential from our flowsheet optimization program to deliver improvements in recovery well in excess of the 4-5 percentage point improvement that we are targeting for our feasibility study. Each percentage point improvement in nickel recovery would yield a US$92 million improvement in the value of the NPV8% of the project, based on the PEA metrics. While we continue to expect a broad range of recoveries from the samples which will be tested during the variability program, the ability to achieve 60+% recovery from samples from the lower grade portion of the resource is an excellent outcome.”

Description of Current Results
This open circuit test (“OCT”) was completed at COREM on a heazlewoodite dominant sample with a head grade of 0.22% nickel, 6.8% iron and a sulphur to nickel ratio of 0.36. The sample was selected from the South Low Grade region of the Crawford Main Zone and achieved a nickel recovery of 61%, which is 19 percentage points higher than what was modelled for this type of sample in the PEA. In addition to the excellent nickel recovery, the iron and chromium recoveries were also 15 and 18 percentage points higher than what was modelled in the PEA respectively.

This test used the same flowsheet that was used in the news release dated October 5th, 2021, which demonstrated nickel recovery improvements that were more than 5% higher than what was modelled in the PEA on four samples from the high grade core. The result presented in the current release shows that recovery gains of more than 5% using the new flowsheet are also being achieved in the lower grade portions of the resource.

As expected, all of the nickel recovered to the nickel concentrate was to the high grade concentrate, because heazlewoodite was the primary nickel sulfide mineral in this sample. The sample also contained quantities of awaruite which, as expected, reported to the magnetite concentrate. The nickel concentrate grade of 37% is 2% higher than our target 35% grade for this product and highlights the Company’s ability to produce the one of the highest grade concentrates on the market. As anticipated, the cobalt recovery for this sample was low because cobalt does not typically associate with the mineral heazlewoodite.

Sample Location
This sample was taken from drill hole CR21-167 from the South Low Grade Zone of the Crawford Main Zone. The average nickel grade of this zone of the deposit is 0.21% nickel and the sample head grade was 0.22% nickel. The company is encouraged by nickel recoveries in excess of 60% by lower grade samples such as the one used in this test, which is attributed to the optimization and development work completed by the Company since issuing the PEA. In the next phase of metallurgical test work, Canada Nickel will complete variability testing on samples from the Crawford Main and East Zones starting with samples from the East Zone.

Figure 1 – Location of Sample within the South Low Grade Zone


For further details, including key assumptions, parameters and methods used to estimate the results of the PEA, and data verification, please refer to the "Crawford Nickel-Sulphide Project National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment", with an Effective Date of May 21, 2021, as filed July 12, 2021, and available for viewing on the Company’s website www.canadanickel.com.

Qualified Person and Data Verification
Arthur G. Stokreef, P.Eng (ON), Project Metallurgist of Canada Nickel and a "qualified person" as such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release on behalf of Canada Nickel Company Inc.

About Canada Nickel
Canada Nickel Company Inc. is advancing the next generation of nickel-cobalt sulphide projects to deliver nickel and cobalt required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets. Canada Nickel Company has successfully registered and applied for trademarks in various jurisdictions for NetZero Nickel™, NetZero Cobalt™ and NetZero Iron™ and is pursuing the development of processes to allow the production of net zero carbon nickel, cobalt, and iron products. Canada Nickel provides investors with leverage to nickel and cobalt in low political risk jurisdictions. Canada Nickel is currently anchored by its 100% owned flagship Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project in the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp. For more information, please visit www.canadanickel.com.
 

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