- A world-class project, amenable to open pit mining
- Bushveld complex is world's largest container of nickel-sulfide and hosts over 75% of globe's platinum reserves
- Top tier, experienced management
What Zeb Nickel (TSX-V:ZBNI) Corp does:
Zeb Nickel (TSX-V:ZBNI) Corp Inc is focused on exploring for metals, which are critical to the electric vehicle (EV) and clean energy revolution. These include nickel, graphite, lithium, cobalt, manganese and copper.
Its flagship asset is the already fairly advanced Zeb Nickel (TSX-V:ZBNI) Project (Zeb) which sits in the northern limb of the Bushveld and is around 9 kilometres (km) northeast of the mining and farming town of Mokopane in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. This area is renowned for its world-class nickel-copper-platinum group element (Ni-Cu-PGE) deposits.
The project is adjacent to Ivanhoe Mines’ US$1.5 billion Platreef project and sits 15 kilometres (km) from Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena mine, which is the world’s largest open-pit platinum mine. The company has noted that these two deposits together alone contain more than 27% of the top ten known global nickel sulphide resources.
The Zeb asset already has a historic NI 43-101 compliant resource of 3.9 million tons of contained sulphide nickel, ranking it eighth in the global top ten nickel sulphide resources. Its higher confidence indicated resource stands at 485.4 million tons at 0.256% nickel, while the inferred category stands at 1.11 million tonnes at 0.248%.
Notably, at the property, three distinct targets have been identified over a 5 km strike, which could increase near-surface tonnage and high-grade mineralization at depth.
Exploration drilling into the footwall of the existing nickel resource has resulted in high-grade nickel sulphide intersection in excess of 0.5% nickel and 1.88 grams per ton (g/t) of three PGE (platinum group elements) plus gold. The three platinum group elements in question here are platinum, palladium and rhodium.
How is it doing:
On September 13, 2021, Zeb Nickel (TSX-V:ZBNI) announced the start of a planned 3,600 metre (m) diamond drill program at the Zeb project in a bid to target higher-grade nickel sulphide, which was discovered in 2017 in the footwall of the historic resource estimate.
The idea is that the work will mean the firm can then estimate the amount of infill drilling required to classify the historical resource as current.
This footwall target is thought to be around 5,000m in strike and varies in thickness between 1.8m and 10m, from depths of 30m below surface down to depths of greater than 400m below surface.
Drilling here in 2017 generated results of 0.56% nickel over an average width of approximately 5m, with significant cobalt and PGE credits, resulting in a nickel equivalent grade of 2.75% nickel.
This target is thought to be a similar geological horizon to that being developed at the adjacent Ivanhoe Mines Platreef project. If successful, this drilling will result in increasing the overall grade of the project, noted the company.
Inflection points:
- First exploration drill results from Zeb project
- Nickel and other battery metal price moves
- Updated preliminary economic assessment
What the boss says:
"This drilling program is the next exciting step in helping Zeb Nickel identify and quantify higher grade nickel sulphide and PGE mineralisation in the footwall," said Wayne Isaacs, CEO of Zeb Nickel, in a statement about the start of exploration drilling.
"We see the next steps as identifying the extent of the higher-grade mineralisation, classifying the historical resource as current, and then updating the PEA which could ultimately translate into better project economics with reduced project capital requirements with a higher life of mine head grade, assisted by PGE by-products," he added.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com