This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Power Nickel. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
If the lion is king of the jungle, then the Lion Zone within the Nisk Project in Québec, Canada, is the crown jewel of Power Nickel’s (TSX-V:PNPN) flagship project.
The Lion Zone comprises multiple 10m-plus zones with copper up to 8%, platinum group metals of over 22 grams per tonne, gold of over 1.6g/t, and silver in excess of 69g/t.
As part of its 2025 winter exploration program, Power Nickel plans to drill west of the existing strike length, followed by the eastern extension and at depth. The company is planning to conduct a scout drilling program between the Nisk Project and the Lion Zone with relatively short holes, and using the downhole electromagnetic (EM) surveys as a guide for deeper drilling.
Power Nickel expects to complete 30,000m of drilling by the end of April 2025 across the entire Nisk Project and 50,000m during the year. The company will also seek to deliver a metallurgical study in H2 2025.
As CEO Terry Lynch explains to Mining.com.au, Power Nickel’s summer drilling program recently expanded the polymetallic Lion Zone by 50%.
“Nisk is very likely, in my opinion, to be a world class exploration discovery, meaning it will contain more than a million tonnes of metal-equivalent,” the CEO tells this news service.
Size and grade are king
Lynch says the Lion Zone is the “most compelling base metals discovery in the past year all around the world”, after publishing the drill assay database to date.
The CEO is emphatic about the road ahead in which he describes the summer of 2024 being remembered as an epic one regarding the ongoing discovery of the Lion Zone, noting that size and grade are king in the mining jungle.
Well-endowed with nickel, copper, and noble metals, exploration at the polymetallic Nisk Project has been a roaring success for Power Nickel so far in 2024.
“Size-wise this is the most asymmetric risk-reward exploration play on the planet, in my humble opinion. I know I am drinking the Kool Aid, but I would not be fair to investors if I didn’t try and pound that point home,” Lynch says.
“The other message is grade — I mean, when is the last time someone has had a discovery this high-grade? Imagine, analyst estimates we are averaging 7% copper-equivalent over 5 million tonnes, and that’s just the start.”
When Lynch personally invests in mining in base metals, he assesses aspects such as contained metal.
“I am looking for projects that have at least a viable pathway to 500,000 tonnes and hopefully a million tonnes of metal. That means you have scale,” he says.
“Next is how many tonnes must be processed to get these metals. Here we want the lowest number possible as processing costs lots of money. How deep is it? The shallower the better.
“Open pit or underground. All this drives capex and payback. It’s a yin and yang thing there. Here you want flexibility to be able to get projects into production with a very speedy payback … and then if markets are right you may be able to go bigger with slower payback but enhanced total shareholder returns,” the CEO explains to Mining.com.au.
Nisk characteristics
Lynch believes the market has been somewhat trapped by the name Power Nickel, and nickel as a metal has had a difficult year. So some people just switch off.
“That’s a mistake as while we are proud of our nickel history and believe it will be a very profitable mineral for us, we also want to make the market aware that this is an orthomagnetic deposit composed of almost equal parts high grade nickel-copper as noble metals (PGEs+Au+Ag). We are polymetallic. Think the Canadian version of Norilisk,” Lynch says.
Norilsk Nickel Group is a diversified mining and metals holding company, the world’s leading producer of palladium and metallic nickel, and a major global producer of platinum, copper, and other low carbon footprint metals essential for the low‑carbon economy and green transport.
“One of the challenges is that these discoveries are so rare that comparables almost don’t exist,” the CEO says.
Powerful backers
“Power Nickel has one of the most exciting mineral discoveries in the world. It has gone from an interesting medium high-grade nickel sulphide project to a potential world class polymetallic discovery in the last 12 months,” Lynch tells this news service.
“This transformation has attracted $20 million-plus in capital from legendary investors like Robert Freidland, Gina Rinehart, Rob McEwen, and numerous profile mining funds.
“They have invested because analysts feel the company has already found 5 million tonnes of 7% copper-equivalent in addition to over 8 million tonnes of 1.2% nickel-equivalent, and they believe these amounts could grow as much as ten-fold, making Nisk a world class discovery.”
The CEO believes Power Nickel is valued at about 20-30 cents on the dollar given what it has already found, and notes the company is fully funded for the next 14 months.
“We found an estimated 5 million tonnes with 10,000m and are in the midst of a fully funded 30,000m drill program that will end in April, and we would expect to drill over 50,000m in 2025,” Lynch says.
“Will that grow our discovery resource? I believe there is an excellent chance we multiply our resource many fold. So fully funded, smart money, cheap based on what we have already found, and significant drilling programs delivering news every three to four weeks.
“Oh, and all within the best critical mineral jurisdiction in the world, and guided by a globally recognised, top-ranked exploration team. I can’t think of a better risk-reward scenario in mining and I have personally invested over $4 million with my family in the last 24 months because I believe this to be true.”
2025 strategy: ‘Drill baby, drill’
When asked what the market might expect in terms of Power Nickel’s growth strategy throughout 2025, Power Nickel’s CEO is emphatic.
“Drill baby, drill! We have a very large base of targets and multiple rigs to target them. We would expect to drill 50,000m from October of this year to the end of 2025,” he adds.
“So, delivering assays and sometimes our famous core pictures every three to four weeks.”
Lynch quickly notes Power Nickel is very proud to have released 16 core pictures, saying they looked promising to the company and all 16 delivered when assays were published.
Power Nickel will also deliver a metallurgical study in H2 2025 to help analysts better value the Nisk Project.
“We are very bullish on the recoveries given the ore makeup, but let’s get that out there officially,” Lynch says.
“We also have some asymmetric upside in our Nickel Powder Project feasibility with the world’s largest private nickel refiner CVMR. And we have maintained a 50% interest in our spinout Chilean Metals, which has some very exciting advanced gold copper exploration targets in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle and in Chile’s copper corridor.
“Stocks move when there is no financing overhang and you have clear value-creating catalysts — we see that happening a lot in 2025. We have a very large base of targets and multiple rigs to target them. Will have a lot of compelling assays in 2025,” he adds.
All drillholes at the Lion Zone are planned to answer some specific questions about the zone continuity, and/or to test areas that have shown favourable signs to be hosting new mineralised zones in the vicinity of the initial discovery.
Core logging will be the basis for the 3D litho-structural model being developed internally. The model compiles all information being gathered and aims to become part of the tools being used in targeting.
The semi-massive to massive and stringers nature of the Lion Zone, combined with its particular mineralogy makes it something that can be “detected” by the appropriate geophysical tools. Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) deployed by Fleet Space Technologies is an indirect way to obtain information on the rock density contrasts, from which the contact between two distinct rock masses can be deduced.
Airborne EM Surveys are particularly useful to detect the electro-electromagnetic properties of the massive sulfides. Ground EM is in the final stages of collection and analysis. Downhole EM is now routinely used to detect massive sulfides ‘off hole’.
The EM surveys are being paired with a renewed focus on geochemistry, utilising Dr Steve Beresford’s experience with geochemistry in polymetallic systems, help define “a location within the system”, and therefore to be in a better position to interpret favourable target areas, by using such geochemistry vectors.
In polymetallic systems, a three-end member metallic zonation can be observed (and explained from a chemical point of view). The zonation involves a nickel-rich component, evolving towards a copper-rich component, while a noble metal component also interacts in the mix at different stages.
According to Ken Williamson, VP Exploration, GeoVector has done a great job executing on the ground as the company manages the many facets of the drilling program. GeoVector is led by Western mining-trained veterans, Joe Campbell and Allen Sexton, and the team of Adam Findlay, Eric Hébert, Duncan Studd, and Tara Sagriff. GeoVector provides mineral exploration consulting and exploration project management services in Canada and worldwide.
Beresford has now implemented into Power Nickel’s regimen the critical importance of downhole EM, and Williamson notes the company “has gained a terrific amount of data on the structure of the mineralised zone giving us high confidence on our next exploration moves”.
“It is exciting to have developed an understanding of the mineral system in 2024 and look forward to sunlighting the full potential of the Lion Zone in 2025,” he adds.
So far, as part of the winter drill program, the company has been drilling west of the established 550m strike length, stepping out at 150m increments. Already drilled with assays pending are holes 76, 78, 79, 80, 81 along the western strike extension. The purpose of these holes was to test the potential continuation of the Lion Zone to the west and the plunging nature of the deposit along strike.
Based on the core logging from those holes — and the correlation so far in 2024 between core logging and eventual assays — Power Nickel decided to collar hole 80 to the west of Holes PN-24-074, and PN-24-075 by 150m to test further extension of the Lion Zone.
Nisk and reward
As mentioned, Power Nickel expects to complete 30,000m of drilling by the end of April 2025 across the entire Nisk Project. The exploration team is using an array of tools including downhole EM to track the mineralised area over 550m, which is open to the east and west and at depth.
Results received in October show an even bigger intersection than previously reported.
The new top hit spans 39.6m @ 4.19% copper equivalent, which Lynch says is the “biggest intersection we have to date”.
This intercept comprises 0.38g/t gold, 19.57g/t silver, 2.62% copper, 3.37g/t palladium, 0.8g/t platinum, and 0.13% nickel. The previous largest intersection, as reported by Mining.com.au in early October, was 32m @ 0.45g/t gold, 20.93g/t silver, 3.62% copper, 8.1g/t palladium, 2.47g/t platinum, and 0.18% nickel — or 6.97% copper-equivalent.
Lynch says with one of Power Nickel’s best holes to date reported earlier in October, it is becoming more evident to the company that the Lion discovery is substantially bigger than originally envisioned.
He says in 2024, Power Nickel has been kicking goals at the Nisk Project, and the company expects this to continue into 2025.
“In January, we were able to test a discovery hole that we had drilled about six months earlier, hole PN-23- 042B. At 60m our PGM hole hit over one ounce of PGM over 7.75m,” says Lynch.
“A cracking great hole, but now that’s not even in our top 10.”
From January through to April this year, Power Nickel drilled 16 holes, hit on 15, and Power Nickel was able to define the initial footprint of what was showing to be a structurally controlled high-grade, multi-elements pod. The company’s 50m grid approach had proven to be successful in helping define the geometry of the zone and its plunge.
“As we published this, of course the mining world took notice and honestly Australian legend Gina Rinehart got it rolling with a million-share bid at C$0.40 one Monday morning. By Friday we were C$0.70 and this led to our June flow through financing where we raised C$20 million,” Lynch tells Mining.com.au.
“The offering was done at C$1.25 per share comprising a share and a three year half warrant at C$1.25. Initially taken down by tax motivated Québec based investors it was sold the same day for C$.66 per unit to Mining magnate Robert Friedland who took half the round, hall-of-famer Goldcorp legend Rob McEwen who made his second private placement with Power Nickel taking 20% of the round, and it was filled by mining funds including Australia’s very sharp Terra Capital.”
“The discovery team is led by our VP of exploration Ken Williamson, a very capable structural geologist and 3D modeller who was at Goldcorp when it made its breakthrough, and by GeoVector”
In keeping with the Australian theme, Power Nickel has been helped by Fleet Space Technologies over the past two years, which has played a positive role in assisting its “very formidable technical team”.
“The discovery team is led by our VP of exploration Ken Williamson, a very capable structural geologist and 3D modeller who was at Goldcorp when it made its breakthrough, and by GeoVector,” Lynch adds.
“In May, the team was joined by one of the top polymetallic explorers on the planet in Perth-based Dr Steve Beresford. Steve was formerly Chief Geologist at First Quantum, then MMG and lastly IGO where he was CSO.
“Steve left the corporate world to focus on finding the next Norilisk — the giant orthomagnetic nickel-copper-PGE mine that is the history of the world, the most valuable mine, and the only one with a trillion dollars of minerals in the ground.
“So we recruited Steve to come to the site as a technical advisor. Once he got to the site, saw the core, and saw the site, and saw the giant kumatiate boulders, he was sold and we were fortunate enough to have Steve join the board of directors and become our senior technical advisor.
“After the funding, Steve had some key technical requests and over the summer I believe we drilled another 13 targeted holes to grow the Lion Zone, but also we drilled several 1,000m holes parallel to the zones just so we could run the downhole EM machine and look to track the mineralised extensions to the Lion Zone and other Lion zones.”
Power Nickel then undertook a massive gravity survey, major ground EM and geochemical work, and generally increased its technical understanding of the project. Lynch notes that from early September to early November the company released the assays on the 13 holes and, as mentioned, grew the Lion Zone by 50% and delivered the best holes to date in holes 70 and 71.
“As exciting as hitting 32m of 6.97% copper-equivalent is, we topped it up by doing down-hole EM in each of these holes. Turning the six-inch hole into a 200m hole. This approach has led to us now drilling 150m step out holes. So they’re ongoing now, these holes, and we are excited by what we see.”
Power Nickel will be exhibiting at this year’s Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) event being held from 2-5 March in Toronto, Canada.
The annual award winning convention brings together up to 30,000 attendees from over 130 countries for its educational programming, networking events, as well as business and investment opportunities.
Mining.com.au is an official media partner for the upcoming event.
To register for PDAC 2025 click here.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au & Power Nickel
