Canada Nickel sizes up new nickel deposit in Timmins

Canada Nickel hopes its Mann West deposit, northeast of Timmins, can rival the size and scale of its flagship Crawford nickel mine project.

The Toronto mine developer and explorer posted a first-time mineral resource estimate of more than two million tonnes of nickel for its Mann West nickel sulphide project. It's shaping up to be another low-grade, big-tonnage type of nickel deposit in northeastern Ontario.

Located 40 kilometres northeast of the city and 20 kilometres east of Crawford, Mann West’s indicated resources amounts to 406 million tonnes, grading 0.23 per cent, for a total of 0.95 million tonnes of contained nickel. On the inferred side, there are 599 million tonnes, grading 0.22 per cent, for a total of 1.31 million tonnes of contained nickel.

The difference between indicated and inferred resources is the degree of confidence in the amount of minerals in the ground, with indicated being the higher category and inferred being the lower.

Two years worth of drilling data in 2023 and 2024 were folded together to produce the estimate, taken from almost 17,000 metres of drilling and from 37 holes.

Canada Nickel has high expectations the nickel resource at Mann West will grow through more exploration. The company said they’ve only tapped into 40 per cent of the 3.4 square kilometre area that’s been targeted.

CEO Mark Selby said in a statement that the volume of nickel at Mann West confirms their belief in the potential of Timmins as a nickel mining district.

“With a target footprint more than double Crawford's, Mann West is just the third of eight new mineral resources we expect to announce by the end of 2025, including two more this month."

Mann is part of a stable of properties co-owned by Canada Nickel and its exploration partner Noble Mineral Exploration spread out between Timmins and Cochrane. 

The resource at Mann is almost two kilometres long, 800 metres wide and extends down to 500 metres. The area to the northwest, and deeper down, looks promising to expand the size of the deposit, the company said.

More follow-up drilling will take place on the property to increase the deposit's size and shift the inferred nickel resources over into the indicated category. Infill drilling, with tighter spacing between drill holes, is the key method used to gather more information.