Tartisan Nickel Corp. – Resource World Magazine – Dec-Jan 2020- Vol 18 Issue 1 page 10
The Kenbridge Deposit Increasingly Relevant In The Hunt For Class 1 Nickel
In 2017-2018 Tartisan Nickel Corp underwent a strategic review of how the Company would move forward in light of weak investment in metals markets. At the time there appeared to be an emerging electric vehicle (EV) boom which Tartisan thought was going to become a driving force in the metals market. This thinking lead to a merger with Canadian Arrow Mines Limited, a junior explorer which owned the Kenbridge Nickel Deposit in northwestern Ontario.
According to Tartisan CEO and President, Mark Appleby, the company was reviewing advanced nickel properties searching for a viable low capex project. The reasoning was simple in his mind. EVs and battery storage are becoming increasingly more relevant in today’s society and nickel would be an important component in the emerging technology. Lithium ion batteries have been the main source for this technology in the past, however, there has been a move to other metal sources to replace that reliance. Many companies are looking at various commodities which are important in the new battery technologies including; cobalt, vanadium and manganese. A growing alternative to the lithium-ion battery is the nickel metal hydride battery, (NiMH) and the Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt battery (NMC).
Sulphide nickel deposits (also termed Class 1 nickel), are the preferred nickel mineral deposits to meet the battery demand as opposed to the more abundant nickel laterite deposits. There are a handful of large low-grade nickel sulphide projects which will require large capital expenditures combined with several years of assessment and permitting to get to a production decision. There are however, even fewer moderate to higher grade nickel sulphide deposits which could be developed towards production in a short timeline with minimal capital outlay, Kenbridge being an obvious standout.
The Kenbridge deposit was discovered in 1937 by Coniagas and is located in northwestern Ontario between Fort Frances and Dryden. Falconbridge Limited acquired the property in 1952, began construction in 1954 with a subsequent mining operation lasting for 2.5 years. A 609 metre deep shaft with two working levels were developed and a bulk sample was extracted. At that time there was not a feasible way to move the ore to facilities, so it was shut down in 1958. The project sat dormant until 2007 when Canadian Arrow acquired the property, completed a 40,000 metre drill campaign and proceeded to establish a NI 43-101 Resource Estimate & Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).
According to Appleby, the Kenbridge Nickel Deposit checked off many of the boxes that were important to the Company’s strategy. Today, the project is located in a stable political and mining friendly region (New Gold’s Rainy River Gold Deposit is located 80 km to the south) and has all season road access to within 9 kilometres of the deposit. Although the Company views the 2008 PEA as historical, the underlying resource provides an excellent base from which to work. Previous metallurgical work completed by Canadian Arrow highlighted excellent recoveries and metallurgical properties for the outlined mineralization. The 2008 PEA envisioned a 2,800 tonnes per day combined open pit and UG operation with a capital expenditure of $108 million. The report had outlined a resource of 98 million pounds of nickel and 47 million pounds of copper.
There is potential to increase the reserves along strike and down dip. Additionally, there are several untested exploration targets on the property, such as the Ken-bridge North target, which have similar geophysical characteristics to the Kenbridge Deposit.
According to Appleby the historical PEA highlighted robust economics for the project under metal prices and exchange rates at the time of publishing. “We’re going to be updating the technical reports using current metal prices and exchange rates.” To that end, Tartisan recently commissioned an update of the nickel resource based on current metal prices and dollar exchange rates.
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