Magna Mining Inc (TSX-V:NICU) said it has commissioned a second drill rig to accelerate exploration drilling at previously identified regional targets on the Shakespeare Nickel project in Ontario.
The second rig was moved to site early this month, and recently began drilling at the company's Spanish River Mine option, located 1 kilometer (km) south-west of the recent P-4 nickel discovery.
Spanish River was previously in production as an underground copper-cobalt-gold-silver (Cu-Co-Au-Ag) operation until 1970, and the current drill program is the first diamond drilling program since the mine closed.
READ: Magna Mining announces positive assay results from 2021 drilling program at Shakespeare mine
Magna Mining said the first drill rig of the 2022 drill program started in January and is currently drilling the P-4 Nickel target, which was discovered during the 2021 regional exploration drill program.
This drill is planning to complete an initial 2,500 meters (m) of drilling to further test the EM plate associated with the discovery hole, as well as the prospective trend of over 400m of strike length to the east.
The company said it expects this drilling to be completed in early April, with assay results coming out later that month. Magna Mining is planning to complete 10,000m of drilling in 2022, with 5,500m still to be allocated based on results from the winter drilling program.
Meanwhile, Magna Mining said ongoing discussions with Sudbury mill owners have been positive, so the company has decided to accelerate the evaluation of the toll milling of Shakespeare ore to better understand the potential economics.
Once the current drilling is completed at Spanish River (within 2-3 weeks), the second rig will be prioritized to extract representative metallurgical core samples from the Shakespeare deposit. These samples will be used to determine the recoveries and payable terms from mills in the region, which will support the evaluation of the near-term restart of toll milling.
The Shakespeare Mine was previously in commercial production from 2010 to 2012 via toll milling, and a total of approximately 490,000 tonnes of ore was sent to the Strathcona Mill in Sudbury for processing.
"Given the recent moves in nickel and copper prices, we have decided to accelerate the studies associated with restarting production via toll milling,” said Magna Mining CEO Jason Jessup in a statement.
“Nickel, copper and palladium prices have seen record highs recently and there is potentially a healthy margin associated with the near-term production of Shakespeare ore through a third-party mill. Given that major permits for production remain in place, we feel Magna is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the current metal price environment.”
Jessup added: “We remain focused on our three pillars of growth: development of the Shakespeare open pit mine, mill and tailing facility, resource growth through exploration and executing accretive acquisitions of Sudbury nickel projects that have synergies with Shakespeare. The potential cash flows from toll milling could contribute meaningfully to all three of these growth initiatives."
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