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.
SPC Nickel’s (TSX-V:SPC) Muskox Property in Nunavut, Canada shares several similarities to some of the world’s largest polymetallic camps.
CEO Grant Mourre tells Mining.com.au that Muskox’s unique geology is comparable to prolific polymetallic camps like the Norilsk-Talnakh deposit, Voisey’s Bay Mine and the Sudbury operation.
Norilsk-Talnakh, owned by Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel (MOEX:GMKN), hosts 3.5 billion tonnes @ 5% copper equivalent (2.5% nickel equivalent), making it the largest nickel resource and sixth largest copper resource globally.
The operation’s 175 million contained copper equivalent tonnes propels it to second place in terms of scale.
Dr Stephen Barnes, the Team Leader of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s Ore Systems Science Team, dubs the deposit a “supergiant”.
He told an audience at Monash University in March 2023 that the Norilsk-Talnakh ore field in Arctic Siberia contains some of the world’s most valuable individual orebodies, containing over US$1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) worth of nickel, copper, platinum and palladium.
In terms of scale and geological setting, SPC’s Muskox demonstrates similar potential, with recent consolidation giving the company access to nearly 500km2 of the Muskox Intrusion.
The project has been largely untouched by modern exploration and geophysical techniques. Yet high-grade polymetallic mineralisation is exposed at surface across a 125km-long intrusion, with historical drilling returning top hits of 13.75m @ 5.04% copper and 2.21% nickel.
Decades of data now drives new discovery
The Muskox Intrusion was discovered in the 1950s by Inco, which was one of the world’s biggest producers of nickel before being snapped up in a C$19.4 billion ($21.2 billion) takeover by Brazilian mining heavyweight Vale (NYSE:VALE) in 2006.
Between 1960 and the mid-2000s, several other companies – including BHP (ASX:BHP), Equinox Resources (ASX:EQN), Anglo American (LSE:AAL) and Silvermet (TSX-V:SYI) – also explored the ground.
This previous work provides SPC with a database equivalent to over $20 million in exploration spending.
The Muskox Intrusion ranges from 200-600m wide in the Feeder Dyke to 11km wide in the main body of the system.
The Feeder Dyke extends for over 60km, which Mourre says suggests a “powerful, sustained mineralising system”.
One of the key mineralised zones is known as the Keel Zone, which represents the intersection of the Feeder Dyke and the Main Intrusion.
“The Keel Zone is interpreted to extend at depth for over 40km of strike length, and is a geological target similar to the Ovoid deposit at Voisey’s Bay,” Mourre says.
“However, the Muskox Intrusion is at least 10 times larger than the Voisey’s Bay complex.”
Copper-rich veins reveal platinum group riches
While nickel is more of a focus for the Norilsk-Talnakh and Voisey’s Bay operations, Muskox hosts twice as much copper as nickel.
Mourre tells this news service that Muskox also has exceptionally high platinum group metal (PGM) values of up to 5 ounces per tonne, or over 140 grams per tonne, at a ratio of 15 to one palladium to platinum.
“The copper-rich footwall mineralisation occurs as sharp-walled copper-PGM veins with very high base and precious metal values,” he says.
Meanwhile, the Equinox and Speers Lake targets are sharp-walled massive copper-PGM rich sulphide veins grading up to 19.5% copper and 107g/t platinum-palladium-gold, and up to 12.4% copper and 7.1g/t platinum-palladium-gold respectively.
Exploration at Equinox has also shown high grades of nickel, up to 9.42%.
In July, SPC completed a 1,020-line-kilometre airborne mobile magnetotelluric (MT) survey, the first of its kind completed over the Muskox Intrusion and the first airborne geophysical survey completed in over 20 years on the project.
The company also completed a 1,340-line-kilometre airborne electromagnetic (EM) survey and reprocessed early 2000s airborne EM data to identify targets to include in 3D modelling.
Analysis of the newly collected MT and EM datasets is in progress, with initial results due in Q4 2025.
SPC says work completed between July and September 2025 has significantly advanced the geological understanding of this large, underexplored magmatic system and is an important step toward defining drill-ready targets.
Muskox is comparable in scale to Ontario’s Sudbury Basin, with about 200km2 of the prospective contact, not including the Feeder Dyke, having been modelled down to a vertical depth of 1.25km.
The total strike length of the Feeder Dyke, including the area under the main intrusion, is about 100km.
High-grade silver upside
SPC began a comprehensive field program, including mapping and sampling, in August that also showed the presence of high-grade silver up to 2,940g/t within the Pyrrhotite Lake Target.
Mourre says it has been a transformative period at Muskox, with the summer 2025 program now complete and positioning SPC to more quickly define drill targets that can unlock the scale and grade potential.
“We’ve completed the most thorough modern geophysical survey coverage ever flown over the intrusion, built on it with a systematic field program, and expanded our land package to secure ground critical to unlocking the district’s potential,” he says.
“We’ve completed the most thorough modern geophysical survey coverage ever flown over the intrusion, built on it with a systematic field program, and expanded our land package to secure ground critical to unlocking the district’s potential”
“This work positions SPC Nickel at the forefront of exploring one of Canada’s most compelling magmatic copper-nickel systems.”
Mourre notes that Nunavut generally is opening up and exploration projects are gaining significant attention.
The Muskox Project is located 70km south of Kugluktuk, within the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut.
There has been a substantial increase in exploration activity for critical minerals within the western Kitikmeot Region.
Major mines in the region include B2Gold’s (TSX:BTO) 1.5-million-tonne-per-annum Goose Mine and Burgundy Diamond Diamond Mines’ (ASX:BDM) Ekati Mine.
There are also several projects in the development phase, including White Cliff Minerals’ (ASX:WCN) Rae Copper-Silver Project, Agnico Eagle Mines’ (NYSE:AEM) Hope Bay Gold Mine and MMG’s (HKG:1208) Izok Copper-Zinc Project.
A proposed new infrastructure development, Grays Bay Road and Qikiqtarjuaq deepwater port, is designed to link Nunavut to the rest of North America and global shipping lanes.
Explorers active in Nunavut are also benefiting significantly from a land settlement agreement with the Inuit people. The agreement provides a clear legal and governance framework designed to facilitate exploration while respecting the rights and interests of the Inuit people.
The region is largely the focus of greenfields exploration centred on copper, nickel, PGMs, copper, silver and uranium.
Four-year roadmap to unlock Muskox potential
SPC has mapped out a four-year plan to advance Muskox.
The company has met its 2025 ambitions with the completion of the airborne based geophysics across the main Muskox Intrusion and the Feeder Dyke and the two-to-three-week follow-up field program.
The plan for 2026 is to complete follow-up ground-based geophysical surveys on priority targets, followed by a four-week field program.
This will set the stage for the establishment of a field camp on Stanbridge Lake, which SPC already has regulatory approval for, and a 5,000m diamond drilling and borehole geophysics program in 2027.
A further 5,000m of diamond drilling and borehole geophysics is expected to be undertaken in 2028.
SPC has another polymetallic discovery, located in the Sudbury Basin, known as Lockerby East.
The West Graham deposit, part of the Lockerby East property, has demonstrated large tonnage open pit potential, hosting an indicated resource of 19.3 million tonnes @ 0.42% nickel and 0.28% copper and an inferred resource of 3.3 million tonnes @ 0.37% nickel and 0.28% copper.
“The Lockerby East property emphasis near-term is on the LKE Deposit,” Mourre says.
“There are some compelling EM conductors at depth that a drill program would potentially target there.”
The LKE deposit currently has an underground indicated resource of 665,000 tonnes @ 1.17% nickel and 0.54% copper and inferred resource of 124,000 tonnes @ 0.99% nickel and 0.42% copper.
SPC has identified a 1km trend of high conductivity EM targets down-dip of the LKE deposit.
Mourre notes that the nickel, copper and PGM grades increase with depth and LKE has significantly higher PGM grades than the West Graham deposit.
Prior drilling by First Nickel returned 10m @ 5.6% nickel, 1.26% copper and 0.8g/t PGM.
Mourre says polymetallic discoveries offer a built-in hedge across commodity cycles and are long-life projects.
“These are generational assets. Deposits are typically large and operate over decades,” he says.
“The high-value byproduct credits often offset core production costs.”
SPC is expecting a steady stream of news in the final quarter of 2025 and heading into 2026.
Work currently underway includes the integration of the new MT, EM and field data into the company’s proprietary database, the generation of drill-ready exploration targets and further definition of areas for additional follow-up work ahead of the 2026 season.
“Once our assessment of the data collected this season is complete, we will be positioned to move quickly toward defining drill targets that can unlock the scale and grade potential of Muskox,” Mourre says.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: SPC Nickel
