This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner SPC Nickel. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
As Canada turns its attention north, SPC Nickel (TSX-V:SPC) is positioning its Muskox Copper-Nickel-Platinum Group Metals (PGM) Project in Nunavut as more than a nickel exploration story.
For CEO Grant Mourre, Muskox sits at the intersection of three forces: demand for critical minerals, a renewed search for underexplored districts, and Canada’s growing focus on Arctic infrastructure and sovereignty.
“I’d say there’s maybe three parts to that,” Mourre tells Mining.com.au. “It is the right commodities at the right time.”
SPC Nickel is focused on copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium, and gold — metals increasingly tied to electrification, energy security, and Western supply chain independence.
However, the company is not advancing its flagship Muskox Project, about 70km south of Kugluktuk in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot Region, as a single-deposit concept. Its ambition is larger: to test whether Muskox could become a district-scale polymetallic exploration opportunity.
According to SPC, Muskox covers 496km² of the Muskox intrusion and shares geological similarities with established nickel-copper camps including Sudbury, Voisey’s Bay, and Norilsk.
Historical drilling has returned ‘high-grade’ intersections, including 13.75m @ 5.04% copper and 2.21% nickel from 98.12m.
SPC also says ‘high-grade’ polymetallic mineralisation is exposed at surface along the 125km intrusion.
For Mourre, the timing partly reflects the increasing difficulty of making discoveries in well-explored parts of Canada.
“We’ve had 100-plus years of exploration, so there are fewer and fewer areas,” he says.
“Nunavut as a whole is emerging, in my opinion, as the next frontier of exploration in Canada.”
The Kitikmeot Region has experienced increased critical minerals exploration, with copper-nickel-PGM, copper-silver, and uranium projects attracting renewed attention.
According to the company, the increased activity in Nunavut is supported by proposed infrastructure designed to connect the Canadian territory with the rest of North America and global shipping lanes.
Mourre points to the long-discussed Grays Bay Road and Port Project as a potential turning point for the region.
“Canada as a nation has started to pay attention to the north,” he says, linking that attention not only to metals, but also to Arctic sovereignty.
“If they can get this project done or started, it’ll essentially be a port on the Arctic Ocean with a road connecting it to Yellowknife, essentially connecting Nunavut and the Arctic to the rest of Canada.”
For explorers such as SPC, those broader themes matter. Muskox is remote, so improved transport and logistics could change the region’s long-term outlook.
More than nickel
Despite the company’s name, Mourre is careful to describe Muskox as a polymetallic project rather than a pure nickel play.
“Even though we’ve got nickel in our name, this project is probably more of a copper project than a nickel project,” he says.
“It’s a polymetallic project where it’s copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium, and gold.”
Copper remains central to electrification and grid development, while PGM and cobalt provide further exposure to strategic commodities.
“Having a whole suite of metals that you’re exploring for, all of which fall under the ever-growing umbrella of critical metals, is a big benefit for us,” Mourre says.
Testing district-scale potential
SPC describes the Muskox intrusion as one of the world’s largest and most underexplored copper-nickel systems.
The system is about 125km long, with the Feeder Dyke ranging from 200m to 600m wide and the main intrusion reaching up to 11km wide.
“Muskox has got that potential, based on the geology, to be a district-scale project,” Mourre says.
“The potential is not just to find a deposit, but to find multiple deposits. I envision down the road that the Muskox area could be the next Sudbury in size,” he says.
Inco (the International Nickel Company of Canada) discovered Muskox in the 1950s, but large parts of the project, particularly the Feeder Dyke and Keel Zone, have seen little modern exploration.
SPC’s 2025 work included airborne MobileMT and electromagnetic surveys.
The company says the program identified 85 high-priority electromagnetic conductors across the Muskox intrusion and Feeder Dyke, while surface sampling confirmed widespread ‘high-grade’ copper-nickel-PGM mineralisation across multiple target areas.
Results highlighted by the company include copper equivalent grades of up to 70.62% at Equinox and multiple samples above 30% copper equivalent at Speers Lake.
Separate surface samples returned up to 21.7% copper, 9.42% nickel, and 114.44 grams per tonne of PGM.
Why key targets matter
Mourre says the Feeder Dyke and Keel Zone are central because exploration thinking around magmatic sulphide systems has changed.
Historically, work at Muskox focused on the main intrusion, partly because rusty gossans at the surface provided obvious exploration targets.
However, Mourre says the industry has increasingly shifted its attention towards the plumbing systems that fed large intrusions.
“The Feeder Dyke has basically seen little to no work at all, and the Keel structure is the same,” Mourre says.
“But they’re big. So, if we can prove those up to be viable targets, the upside is pretty massive.”
A deliberate drill path
Mourre says the company developed a four-year plan for Muskox and is now in the second year of that strategy.
The plan is to spend 2026 building and refining targets before moving to drilling in 2027 and 2028.
“Our objectives were to basically do the geological and geophysical work in years one and two, focused on developing targets and essentially de-risking a drill program in years three and four,” Mourre says.
He acknowledges some investors may question why the company is not drilling sooner.
“If I look at historically what companies have done in the past … I don’t think they’ve done enough of their homework before committing to drilling,” he says.
SPC’s 2026 program includes follow-up ground geophysical surveys.
Mourre says the company has completed about 60km of ground electromagnetic surveying across five grids and has begun a large ground magnetotelluric survey.
The company is also preparing for future drilling by selecting a location for a field camp, completing archaeological studies, and progressing the required permits.
In 2027, the company plans to complete 5,000m of diamond drilling and borehole geophysics, followed by 7,500m of drilling and borehole geophysics in 2028.
By the end of 2028, the goal would be to show that a mineralised zone is beginning to hold together across multiple holes.
Working across Nunavut
Operating in Nunavut brings logistical challenges, but Mourre says the territory also offers a clearer engagement framework than many other parts of Canada.
“What separates Nunavut from the rest of Canada is that it’s got modern treaties with the Inuit,” he says.
Early engagement remains essential, but he says the structure helps companies understand who they need to work with.
“You know exactly who you go to,” Mourre says.
Experienced leadership
SPC has also added a name familiar to many Australian mining investors: Dr Mark Bennett.
Bennett was the founding CEO and managing director of Sirius Resources, which discovered the Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in Western Australia before Independence Group, now IGO, acquired the company for $1.8 billion.
Mourre says Bennett brings technical depth and lived experience in taking a company from early-stage exploration through discovery and value creation.
“He understands the magmatic systems, which is great, and brings a lot of knowledge to that,” Mourre says.
“But then also just that experience of having gone through that process of making the discovery and advancing the project.”
For an early-stage project such as Muskox, that experience matters.
“He can talk about the pitfalls, things he did right, things he did wrong,” Mourre says.
“That credibility that he brings to our company is huge.”
Nunavut’s emerging opportunity
Beyond Muskox, Mourre sees Nunavut as part of a broader shift in Canadian exploration.
With growing interest in copper, nickel, uranium, and silver, alongside proposed infrastructure projects, the territory is beginning to attract the level of attention long seen in more established mining regions.
For SPC, that creates an opportunity to advance Muskox in the heart of an emerging critical minerals district.
Write to Bruno Venditti at Mining.com.au
Images: SPC Nickel
