Canada Nickel corporate update, management appointments and US$12M loan

“I am very proud of everything our team has accomplished in just four years," said Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel. Canada Nickel Company Inc. has provided an update on the company’s activities, including several new management appointments and a US$12 million loan facility with Auramet International, Inc.

"As we look forward to the completion of the feasibility study later this month, we are making a number of key management appointments in anticipation of advancing the project towards a construction decision by mid-2025. I am very pleased that we have been able to attract outstanding professionals like Des Tranquilla and Chris Chang to join our team on a full-time basis. I am also pleased that our long supportive financing partner, Auramet, has agreed to provide a US$12 million bridge facility which will allow us to remain well-funded and continue to advance our permitting and detailed engineering activities. Discussions with potential offtake partners are ongoing and expected to be completed before year end.”

Management Appointments

Desmond Tranquilla joins the Company as Vice-President Projects. He has been supporting the Crawford project on a part-time consulting basis through the feasibility study process since September 2021 and possesses hands-on knowledge of the Company’s projects.

Desmond has more than 32 years’ experience supporting major capital projects in mining, as well as experience with both major greenfield and brownfield infrastructure projects. He has held various management and leadership roles in project delivery on behalf of asset managers, mining companies, major engineering firms and P3-type partnerships. In support of full project cycles, he has experience from early scoping/planning, environmental assessment (both Federal and Provincial), PEA, PFS, FS, FEED, detailed design, project delivery (EPCM, EPC & JV) completions, operations and ramp-up. Prior to joining Canada Nickel, Desmond held the position of Director of Construction within the Project Delivery group at SNC-Lavalin North America where he supported all aspects of project planning and execution. One of his more significant contributions was supporting senior leadership on the Detour Lake Gold Project which was delivered on time and within budget. Other major projects he has provided leadership on include: Vale Copper Cliff – Atmospheric Emission Reduction Project (AER), Western Potash – Milestone Project, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) – Cory Project, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan – Picadilly Project, Florida Rock Industries/Arundel Corporation – Jamer Materials Project.

Chris Chang joins the Company as Vice-President Corporate Development, after supporting the Company’s Corporate Development activities on a part-time basis since 2022.

Chris has had a 17-year career in Investment Banking and Capital Markets. From 2015 to 2021, he led the Institutional Equities Mining Specialist Sales desk at various multinational foreign investment banks including Macquarie Capital Markets and Raymond James. In those roles, he has helped raise over $1 billion of equity funding for junior and mid-cap mining companies from Institutional Investors and Private Equity groups globally. Previously, Chris was an Equity Research Mining Analyst at Laurentian Bank Securities covering Base Metals and Uranium equities, where he was responsible for company research coverage, valuations, and the bank’s commodity price forecasts.

Christian Brousseau, who joined Canada Nickel in 2020, assumes a new role as Vice-President Innovation and Technical Services and will continue to lead the Company’s work on IPT Carbonation. Under his leadership, IPT Carbonation has advanced from concept to feasibility study level design in just 13 months. He will also oversee other innovation initiatives targeting the multiple ultramafic deposits we have in our Timmins Nickel District.

After completing the preliminary economic assessment for the Crawford Project, Christian launched the Feasibility Study and has been leading the development of the IPT process since 2022. He has over 30 years of experience in engineering, design, and construction in the Canadian mining industry, including over six years as Project Director for the Dumont Project, and three years as the Engineering and Construction Manager for Detour Gold. Prior to Detour, he held various construction management positions at Osisko's Malartic Project (now owned by Agnico Eagle) and at Goldcorp's Éléonore Project. Mr. Brousseau also spent eight years at Falconbridge supervising and managing various capital projects at Sudbury, Raglan, Kidd Creek and the Horne Smelter.

Loan Facility

The Company has arranged a US$12 million loan facility with Auramet, which is expected to close on or before September 15, 2023. The loan will be due on about December 15, 2023, will carry an interest rate of 1.00% per month, and be subject to a 2.3% arrangement fee. At closing, Auramet will also receive 550,000 one-year warrants with a strike price of $1.24 per common share. The loan will be subject to such terms and conditions including certain specified positive and negative covenants that are customary for a transaction of this nature. The warrants and the underlying shares will be subject to a four month hold period under applicable Canadian securities laws. The closing of the loan facility is subject to customary conditions including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Update on Previously Announced Texmont Acquisitions

The Company also wishes to clarify certain disclosure included in its news release dated June 22, 2023. The Company reported the acquisition of certain mining claims within the Texmont ultramafic trend through a series of Purchase and Sale Agreements. The Company has, in fact, through a series of eleven Purchase and Sale Agreements, acquired a total of 498 mining claims within the Texmont ultramafic trend in exchange for a total of 504,500 common shares and cash payments totaling $295,550, which is 10,900 fewer shares and $5,000 less cash than the 515,400 common shares and cash payments totalling $300,550 previously disclosed on June 22, 2023. The Company has also agreed, under ten of the agreements, to grant a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty to the applicable vendors on such claims, with the Company having the exclusive option to repurchase half of each royalty for $1,000,000 per royalty.

This correction does not change any other information reported in the June 22, 2023 news release.

In addition, the Company announces that it has entered into an option agreement with a group of optionors under which the Company had acquired an option to acquire a 100% interest in 28 single cell mining claims located in the Texmont ultramafic trend. The agreement provides the issuance by the Company of up to a total of 82,236 common shares and the payment to the optionors of a total of $20,000 to exercise the option. In the event the option is exercised, the optionors will retain a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty with the Company having the exclusive option to repurchase half of the royalty for $1,000,000.

Each of the foregoing issuances of common shares are subject to the prior approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, and the shares will be subject to a four-month hold period under Canadian securities laws from the date of the respective issuance.

About Auramet
 

Auramet is one of the largest physical precious metals merchants in the world with over US$20 billion in annual revenues and which provides a full range of services to all participants in the precious metals supply chain. Auramet is a private company established in 2004 by seasoned professionals who have assembled a global team of industry specialists with over 350 years combined industry experience. Their business consists of three main activities: physical metals trading, metals merchant banking (including direct lending) and project finance advisory services. The company has built a consistently successful and prominent franchise in the metals space on the back of an experienced management team that has proven to be innovative and capable of delivering the highest quality service to participants in the sector. In fiscal year 2022 it purchased over 5 million ounces of gold, 78 million ounces of silver and 3.9 million ounces of PGMs, and has provided term financing facilities in excess of US$1 billion to date. Auramet is looking to grow its capital investment business in equity, royalties and streams in the precious metals and battery-related metals mining space. Auramet is proud to have been awarded a Gold Medal for its ESG commitment by EcoVadis, the most trusted provider of ESG ratings with a network of more than 90,000 rated companies. For more information on Auramet, please visit www.auramet.com.

About Canada Nickel Company
 

Canada Nickel Company Inc. is advancing the next generation of nickel-sulphide projects to deliver nickel required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets. Canada Nickel Company has applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero NickelTM, NetZero CobaltTM, NetZero IronTM 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 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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