Nordic Nickel (ASX:NNL) has increased the in-situ JORC (2012) Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Hotinvaara prospect to 418 million tonnes.
The $20.78 million market capitalisation company says the resource, which is part of its flagship wholly owned Pulju Nickel Project in Finland, has @ 0.21% nickel (Ni), 0.01% cobalt (Co), and 53 parts per million (ppm) copper (Cu) for 862,800 tonnes of contained Ni, 40,000t of contained Co, and 22,100t tonnes of contained Cu.
The indicated resource has been upgraded to 42Mt @ 0.22% Ni for 92,700t of contained nickel, while the inferred resource now sits at 376Mt @ 0.21% Ni for 770,100t of contained nickel.
According to Nordic, a ‘substantial’ portion of the updated MRE sits within 250m of surface. The company states the MRE establishes Pulju as a ‘globally significant’ nickel sulphide project, particularly given its proximity to the fast-growing European battery materials and electric vehicle sector.
Nordic Nickel Managing Director Todd Ross says such an increase in resources is testament to an ‘extensive’ drilling program in 2023.
“While cautoning that this is an in-situ MRE and further work is underway to fully establish its economic potential, the updated MRE clearly establishes the size of the disseminated nickel sulphide system, which remains open in almost all directions. It is also particularly significant that the updated MRE represents just 2% of our overall; landholding in North Finland.
The revised MRE shows that Hotinvaara is a very fertile ultramafic system with disseminated sulphides now defined over a vast area. Our geology team, supported and advised by some of the world’s best nickel sulphide experts, believe this represents a clear marker or pathfinder to potential zones of higher grade mineralisation, as well as delineating a major deposit in its own right.
Strategically, this will be our focus over the coming months as we progress further studies to evaluate the disseminated mineralisation, principally detailed metallurgical testwork.”
The Pulju project sits in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt of Finland, about 50km north of Kittilä with access to ‘world-class’ infrastructure, grid power, national highway, an international airport and Europe’s only 2 nickel smelters.
Nordic Nickel is an ASX-listed explorer building resources to meet the growing demand for battery minerals in Europe and the world.
As of December 2023, the company had $2.865 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Nordic Nickel
