Highlights

• First five holes drilled by Canada Nickel into the “B” Zone intersected multi-hundred metre intervals of 0.27-0.29% nickel and contained higher grade intervals of 0.3% nickel or better
  • Higher grade intervals included 16.5 metres of 0.54% nickel
    within a larger interval of 54 metres of 0.38% nickel in BAN23-04
• Upcoming summer 2024 drill program will complete the Canada Nickel drill program in preparation for an initial resource later in 2024
• Company to host a webcast and conference call to discuss 2024 exploration program on Friday, February 23^rd, 2024 at 11 a.m. Eastern Time

Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSX-V: CNC) (OTCQX: CNIKF) is pleased to announce assay results from its 2023 drill program within the “B” Zone at Bannockburn, a 100% owned Canada Nickel property.

“The five Canada Nickel holes drilled to infill the “B” Zone successfully intersected multi-hundred metre intervals of 0.27-0.29% nickel and more importantly, each contained higher grade intervals of 0.3% nickel or better,” said Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel. “The Bannockburn “B” Zone has now been tested for its total 1.1-kilometre strike length with multiple intervals in excess of 0.3% nickel from both previous and current drilling. Bannockburn is highly complementary to our southern cluster of properties at Sothman, Midlothian, Van Hise and Powell.”

Bannockburn Property

The Bannockburn Property is located 100 kilometres south of Timmins and consists of 151 contiguous unpatented mining claims totaling 3,250 hectares. Bannockburn is situated near the Company’s Sothman, Midlothian, Van Hise, and Powell properties forming a southern cluster of highly prospective targets near established infrastructure in Matachewan, Ontario which is located approximately 20 kilometres east of the project area.

This drill program consisted of six holes that formed an infilling of previous work on the “B” Zone. All six drillholes intersected sections of moderate to strongly serpentinized dunite/peridotite. Highlights for the first five holes are listed in Table 1 and shown in Figure 1. Hole BAN23-06 was drilled to test for a possible continuation of the higher-grade “C” Zone into the much larger, lower-grade “B” Zone. Drilling highlights from previous drilling are shown in Table 2.

Other higher-grade historical prospective zones (A, C, D, E, & F) on the property (Figure 2) will be tested in future by Canada Nickel.

Table 1 – Bannockburn drilling downhole composites.

The “B” Zone is a large mineralized ultramafic measuring 1.1 kilometres along strike by up to 600 metres across strike (based on its magnetic response) as shown in Figure 1 with a total target geophysical footprint of 0.5 km². The “B” Zone was drilled in 2021 by Grid Metals Corp. (“Grid Metals”) to a depth of 340 metres, with the best hole, GBN21-03, intersecting 342 metres of 0.28% nickel. Historic drilling by Outokumpu Mines Inc. (“Outokumpu”) intersected 203 metres of 0.33% nickel in MBB4-09 and 25 metres of 0.46% nickel in BN-19-98. Preliminary mineral processing in 2005 by Grid Metals showed that a 0.33% nickel bulk sample from the “B” Zone resulted in a 52% or higher nickel recovery and a 35% nickel concentrate (see Grid Metals press release February 17, 2021).

Table 2 – Grid Metals Previous Drilling – “B” Zone.
(previously reported)

Table 3: Drillhole Orientation

Repayment of Auramet Loan Facility

The Company has also repaid the US$12 million loan facility with Auramet International, Inc.

Quality Assurance and Control, Drilling and Assaying

Edwin Escarraga, MSc, P.Geo., a “qualified person” as defined by National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for the on-going drilling and sampling program, including quality assurance) 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. One set of samples is transported in secured bags directly from the Canada Nickel core shack to Actlabs Timmins, while a second set of samples is securely shipped to SGS Lakefield for preparation, with analysis performed at SGS Burnaby or SGS Callao (Peru). All are ISO/IEC 17025 accredited labs. Analysis for precious metals (gold, platinum and palladium) are completed by Fire Assay while analysis for nickel, cobalt, sulphur and other elements are performed using a peroxide fusion and ICP-OES analysis. Certified standards and blanks are inserted at a rate of 3 QA/QC samples per 20 core samples making a batch of 60 samples that are submitted for analysis.

Certain data disclosed in this news release is related to previous and historical drilling results. Canada Nickel has not undertaken any independent investigation of the sampling nor has it independently analyzed the results of the historical exploration work in order to verify the results. Canada Nickel considers the historical drill results relevant as the Company is using this data as a guide to plan exploration programs.

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-sulphide projects to deliver nickel required to feed the high growth electric vehicle and stainless steel markets. Canada Nickel Company has applied in multiple jurisdictions to trademark the terms NetZero Nickel^™, NetZero Cobalt^™, NetZero Iron^™ and is pursuing the development of processes to allow the production of net zero carbon nickel, cobalt, and iron products. Canada Nickel provides investors with leverage to nickel 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.