Class 1 Nickel updates NI 43-101 on Alexo-Dundonald deposits, Timmins

Class 1 Nickel and Technologies Ltd. has filed an updated National Instrument 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate on its 100% owned Alexo-Dundonald Nickel Project about 45 km northeast of Timmins.

“This Project has indicated the viability of a direct shipping model on several occasions in the past," said Class 1 President Benjamin Cooper.

"This time we are operating in a rising class 1 nickel market with truly global demand and our Company is envisioning a much bolder, larger, stronger approach utilizing greater financial backing and capacity with a plan to ship more mineralized material, faster and more efficiently than previously possible. This approach is anticipated to fund deeper drilling and a systematic Mineral Resource expansion to scale-up production.

The Project comprises four foundation resources; Alexo North, Alexo South, Dundonald North and Dundonald South which are situated within a regionally folded package of mafic to ultramafic (basalt and komatiite flows) rocks that trend through the approximately 20 square km land package (Figure 1). A large portion of the Property remains untested by drilling and modern geophysics.

Following the completion of a modern Mineral Resource validation program and a Technical Report of the Mineral Resources contained within the newly amalgamated Alexo and Dundonald deposit models, Class 1 is reporting an updated total estimated Indicated Mineral Resource of 1.25 Million tonnes (Mt) with an average grade of 0.99% Ni and a total estimated Inferred Mineral Resource of 1.01 Mt with an average grade of 1.08% Nickel (Table 1). The total estimated Indicated Mineral Resource has increased by 119% and the Inferred Mineral Resource has increased by 1,400% since the previously reported Mineral Resource Estimate contained in the NI 43-101 compliant Technical Report dated June 30, 2020. 

The Alexo-Dundonald Class 1 Nickel Project sits on a 14 km strike-length, folded komatiite unit containing several nickel-copper-cobalt and platinum-group element Mineral Resources. Decades of successful capital expenditure and investment into the Project by previous owners has resulted in the discovery and delineation of four main nickel Mineral Resources that occur along the folded komatiite unit. A total of 102,883 metres of drilling has been conducted on and around the komatiite fold and a valuable data set has been assembled, which confirms the existence of numerous other smaller high-grade deposits and mineralized lenses that occur between and alongside the four main Updated Mineral Resources reported herein.

Eugene Puritch, P.Eng, FEC, CET, President of P&E, heads a specialist Mineral Resource and Mine Engineering consulting firm that has successfully built mine plans for several Canadian mining companies stated “The Alexo-Dundonald Project was previously mined via a direct shipping model, and the Preliminary Economic Assessment that P&E will soon commence is being designed around similar principles.”

Small-scale open pit mining of Nickel and direct shipping mineralized material production at Alexo-Dundonald last occurred in 2004-2005. Subsequently in 2011, more mining and stockpiling of mineralized material occurred in conjunction with the signing of a custom processing agreement with Glencore’s Strathcona process facility near Sudbury.

This analysis will be used to couple with deeper penetrating ground geophysics prior to commencing step-out and expansion drilling aimed at adding more tonnage to the overall Mineral Resource. After the completion of the diamond drilling campaign, the Company will produce a PEA inclusive of a mine and production plan with a view to re-initiating the direct shipping operation.

 

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