As any mining investor will tell you, the key criteria to picking a junior stock comes down to project, jurisdiction, commodity and team. Canadian firm Murchison Minerals (TSX-V:MUR, OTCQB:MURMF, TSX-V:MUR.V) Ltd safely ticks all four boxes.
The group is advancing two district-scale battery metal plays in the favourable Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Quebec.
Murchison’s strategy is simple: seek out energy metal plays - be it nickel, copper, cobalt or some combination - that have camp-scale potential, establish a dominant land position in the area, and use the latest technologies available to pinpoint the deposit.
That strategy is on display at its HPM project in Quebec, a 576-square-kilometre HPM project is home to at least 50 defined anomalies and targets that range from bulk-tonnage low-grade targets, through to high-grade showings.
READ: Murchison Minerals reveals encouraging results from its inaugural drill program at the PYC target on the HPM nickel project in Quebec
In late 2021, the firm quadrupled its land package after its exploration program demonstrated that the property hosts significant nickel-copper-cobalt mineralization.
CEO Troy Boisjoli explained the firm’s thinking behind the acquisition of the additional 43,689 hectares of mineral claims at the HPM Project.
“The evolution of the project is down to the exploration approach that we’ve used,” Boisjoli told Proactive.
Murchison identified conductive anomalies through a VTEM survey on the property, giving it a line of sight to nickel bearing sulphide mineralization and the ability to get onto the ground to prospect the anomalies.
After confirming the conductivity on the ground the firm sampled them and examined the geochemistry for the presence of sulphide mineralization in the rock. “It’s increasing probability of discovery,” Boisjoli said.
“We move forward using that exploration approach into the drill program, where you have a very linear approach going from airborne geophysics, on the ground prospecting, to drilling. We drilled our initial eight holes into a target called PYC and intersected nickel-bearing sulphide mineralization. That is continuing to build our confidence in the camp-scale potential at HPM.”
Camp-scale potential
Recently, drilling at the PYC target revealed three broad zones of nickel-copper-cobalt mineralization totaling 62.21 metres (m) of composite thickness, including 7.41m grading 0.23% nickel equivalent (NiEq), including 1.8m at 0.52% NiEq. Another hole intersected five broad zones of the same mineralization totaling 69.9m of composite thickness, including 39.5m grading 0.24% NiEq, including 7.6m at 0.37% NiEq and 1.26% NiEq over 0.58m. The results, when coupled with historical work at the Barre de Fer and Syrah targets, indicate that HPM has camp-scale potential.
The 2021 airborne survey only covered around 15% of HPM’s total land package, so the next step will be to fly another VTEM survey on the remaining 85% of the property to define more anomalies that are prospective for nickel-bearing sulphide mineralization.
That’s not all that Murchison is focused on, however. Over in Saskatchewan, the company is hoping to apply a similar strategy at its Brabant Lake (BMK) zinc‐copper‐silver project – a project that Boisjoli calls “foundational” due to its resource and location.
BMK contains zinc, copper, lead, silver, and gold resources of 2.1 million tonnes indicated and 7.6 million tonnes inferred and is open in all directions. The project area is believed to be highly prospective to host additional VMS-type mineralization as VMS deposits are rarely found alone.
Right now, the BMK deposit is the only known significant VMS deposit in the area. “The potential at BMK is very significant,” the Murchison CEO said.
Pillars in place
Boisjoli knows a good project when he sees one, having previously been involved in the discovery of another district-scale project in Saskatchewan – the Arrow uranium project owned by NexGen Energy. Few CEOs know the province as well as Boisjoli and have had the same success in taking a project from exploration to feasibility and everything social and community engagement-wise along the way.
He is backed by a rock-solid team, including venerated mining executive JC Potvin, a co-founder of Murchison who now serves as its executive chair. Bringing strong technical expertise to the boardroom is vice president exploration John Shmyr, who has been working on BMK for almost four years now.
Add to that an impressive shareholder base that includes the likes of Michael Gentile, a noted mining investor with a knack for picking winners, who holds just under 10% of Murchison’s fully diluted shares.
As for the fourth investment pillar – commodity – well, it’s a good time to be in the battery metals space. Nickel is currently at a 14-year high, putting Murchison in a prime position to take advantage of the positive momentum in the market.
Fueling the green energy transition
End users are also becoming even more focused on environmental and social issues when it comes to securing supply. How much of a carbon footprint will it take to source raw materials needed, and what are the social implications of the mining operation?
From an ESG perspective, HPM is well positioned with a hydroelectric dam providing power nearby and other infrastructure already in place, meaning less disruption to the surrounding land. What’s more, the project’s nickel-bearing sulphides are more favourable from a battery metals perspective.
“The transition to a new economy is predicated on a stable supply, and a stable supply chain in a secure jurisdiction,” Boisjoli said. “Ultimately that is what will be required for the transition to be successful.”
Murchison is hoping to emerge as one of Canada’s main battery metals providers at a time when buyers are looking to North America for a secure supply of raw materials.
“The interest that we're seeing is a direct result of that transition and the recognition that nickel, copper and cobalt are all … critical to the transition,” Boisjoli said. “There needs to be investment to develop those secure supply chains that are going to facilitate that transition. At the early stages of developing a battery metals project in Quebec, we feel like Murchison is very well positioned to add significant shareholder value.”
Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas