Blackstone Minerals Inks Canadian Nickel Sulphide MoU
THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Blackstone Minerals (ASX: BSX) announced making a strategic investment in Flying Nickel Mining Corp, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Silver Elephant Mining Corp. (TSX: ELEF, OTCQX SILEF) in Canada.
Blackstone Minerals explained that Flying Nickel intends to list on the TSX Ventures Exchange (TSX-V) in early 2022 with its core asset being the Minago nickel sulphide project located southwest of Thompson in Manitoba, Canada.
Minago has a NI 43-101 compliant Measured and Indicated Resource of 44.23 million tonnes at 0.74 per cent nickel for 721.6 million pounds nickel, and Inferred resource of 19.55 million tonnes at 0.74 per cent nickel for 318.9 million pounds nickel.
The company described Minago as an advanced stage development asset with district scale exploration potential and excellent access to infrastructure including renewable hydro power.
Blackstone’s initial investment of C$2.98 million will earn a 6.85 per cent interest in the common equity of Flying Nickel.
Blackstone and Flying Nickel have also entered a Memorandum of Understanding, under which the companies will collaborate on the production of upstream and downstream nickel and cobalt concentrates and chemical products, potential offtake and / or joint ventures to meet demand from the growing electric vehicle battery industry.
“The known mineral endowment of the Minago asset in combination with the potential of the Ta Khoa district represents enviable scale, being highly sought after by OEMs, battery and cathode manufacturers,” Blackstone Minerals managing director Scott Williamson said in the company’s ASX announcement.
“Large, disseminated nickel sulphide deposits of the size and grade of the Minago asset are difficult to find.
“The ongoing structural evolution of nickel supply chains and increasing demand for downstream nickel chemical products for the lithium-ion battery industry, is driving a unanimous view by analysts and the broader investment community that higher nickel prices are here to stay for longer.
“This means that large undeveloped opportunities such as Minago are primed to overcome previous barriers, including access to capital.
“The Flying Nickel Transaction provides Blackstone with opportunity to collaborate on the development of Minago, and confidence to inject future equity into the asset as it is progressively de-risked.
The Ta Khoa Refinery in Vietnam is a logical home for Minago concentrate.
“Manitoba, like Northern Vietnam is blessed with access to renewable hydro power.
“Shipping a high-grade concentrate minimises carbon footprint and is aligned with Blackstone’s commitment to best ESG practices and ambition to become a supplier of choice to the electric vehicle battery industry.”
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