Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSX-V:CNC) announced the results from the latest drill holes at its Crawford Nickel-Cobalt project, including the first two discovery holes on the East Zone, and partial assays from a third hole which is a 1.5 km extension to the PGM Zone on the Main Zone.  The new East Zone discovery has only been tested for 1.7 km of its overall 2.6 km interpreted strike length and the original Main Zone remains open to the west and at depth.

Mark Selby, Chair and CEO of Canada Nickel commented “We are very pleased with both the new nickel and multi-zone palladium-platinum discoveries from our first step-out holes at Crawford.  These new holes have also yielded both the most promising palladium + platinum (2.6 g/t across 7.5 m) intersection and highest grade nickel zone intersections to date (0.42% nickel + 0.2 g/t palladium + platinum across 55 m).  With more than 1.5 km extensions to both the PGM Zone and Nickel Zones and assays pending from another 9 holes which have the potential to further extend the mineralization identified to date, we look forward to continued success as we unlock more targets at our original Crawford property. With the additional properties in the process of being acquired from Noble, we have added a number of nearby targets which we will begin exploring later in the year initially utilizing geophysics to determine the highest priority (based on potential for higher grade mineralization) targets.”

Mr. Selby continued “We continue to be encouraged by the results of our drilling program and are committed to establishing Crawford as one of the leading next generation nickel-cobalt sulphide and palladium projects. I extend my sincere thanks to our exploration team for their hard work and the ongoing support we’ve received from our local contractors including our drilling company NPLH. Our top priority is the safety and wellbeing of our people especially during these challenging times.”

The Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project is located in the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp in Ontario, Canada, and is adjacent to well-established, major infrastructure associated with over 100 years of regional mining activity.

New Nickel Discovery – East Zone

The first two holes of this next phase of exploration drilling (CR19-28 and CR19-31) were drilled along the East Zone, doubling the known total extent of nickel mineralization by 1.7 km to a total of 3.4 km.  Both holes intersected large widths of nickel mineralization of 321 metres and 382 metres respectively, with hole CR19-28 ending in mineralization at 573 m.  Hole CR19-28 yielded the highest grade nickel interval to date – 55 m of 0.42% nickel and 0.2 g/t palladium + platinum within 256 m of 0.30% nickel and 0.05 g/t palladium + platinum within a total of 0.27% nickel across 321 m.  A further 9 holes have been drilled on the East Zone which have assays pending.  See Figures 1a, 1b and Table 1 for drilling results.

Similar to the PGM Zone on the Main Zone nickel-palladium resource, both holes intersected palladium-platinum mineralization located at the north contact between the peridotite and pyroxenite layer directly to the north of the main nickel structure.  Hole CR19-28 intersected 1.7 g/t (0.8 g/t Pd, 0.9 g/t Pt) over 4.5 m from 180 m and hole CR19-31 intersected 1.6 g/t (0.7 g/t Pd, 0.8 g/t Pt) over 3.0 m from 525 m.  See Figure 2 for location of the PGM Zone.

Table 1 – East Zone Nickel Drilling Results, Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project

PGM Zone – Main Zone Extension

The third hole (CR20-32 – only partial assay results were available) was positioned at the northeastern end of the Main Zone, approximately 1.5 km from the nearest previous hole and intersected three separate palladium-platinum zones including the most promising palladium-platinum results to date: 2.6 g/t palladium + platinum (1.3 g/t Pd, 1.3 g/t Pt) over 7.5 m within 1.8 g/t (0.9 g/t Pd, 0.9 g/t Pt) over 12 m from 123 metres. See Figure 2 and Table 2 for summary of the PGM results.  Each of the intersections was at a peridotite-pyroxenite boundary which has now been intersected multiple times. 

Table 2 – PGM Zone – Drilling Results, Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, Ontario

Table 3 – Drill Hole Orientation, Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project, Ontario

Assays, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and Drilling and Assay Procedures

William E. MacRae, MSc, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, is responsible for the on-going drilling and sampling program, including quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC). The core is collected from the drill in sealed core trays and transported to the core logging facility. The core is marked and sampled at 1.5 metre lengths and cut with a diamond blade saw. Samples are bagged with QA/QC samples inserted in batches of 35 samples per lot. Samples are transported in secure bags directly from the Canada Nickel core shack to Actlabs Timmins, an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited lab. Analysis for precious metals (gold, platinum and palladium) are completed by Fire Assay while analysis for nickel, cobalt, sulphur and 17 other elements are performed using a peroxide fusion and ICP-OES analysis. Certified standards and blanks are inserted at a rate of one QA/QC sample per 32 core samples making a batch of 35 samples that are submitted for analysis.

Qualified Person and Data Verification

Stephen J. Balch P.Geo. (ON), VP Exploration of Canada Nickel and a “qualified person” as such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101, has verified the data disclosed in this news release, and has otherwise reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release on behalf of Canada Nickel Company Inc.

About Canada Nickel Company

Canada Nickel Company Inc. is advancing the next generation of nickel-cobalt sulphide projects to deliver nickel and cobalt required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets.  Canada Nickel provides investors with leverage to nickel and cobalt in low political risk jurisdictions.  Canada Nickel is currently anchored by its 100% owned flagship Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project in the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp.