SO, we are working in the field, as usual.... You knew that, we told you in our last release.
So far we are happy with how our process is progressing.
What is the process - or where are we headed? Well, we are working to prove that Surimeau is an economic, long life span open pit source of nickel, along with other metals which will be payable credits (the polymetallic bit - copper, zinc and cobalt at least).
Our process is not a quick one, but it cannot be. We are dealing with two mineralized systems which cover a huge amount of ground.
Yes, I am putting my usual disclaimer in here, for what follows and what you just read.
This is written by me, Nicole Brewster, President and CEO of Renforth. I am not independent, nor qualified to give you any financial advice. You have to always always always do your own due diligence, seek advice if needed and form your own opinion.
What am I? I am an explorer, an optimist, and I see the potential at Surimeau to create significant value from where there was none (known). And I am willing to do the work, to grind as my video game playing kids call it. It may not be as exciting as some hope, but the work is valid, necessary, and frankly has been going pretty well!
Warned accordingly, let me tell you, I think Surimeau has significant potential - for two main reasons-
1 - I cannot imagine a lower carbon impact setting for a mine - we have the roads and the rail, we are close to all the new North American battery sites and automakers, so our access costs and carbon impact are as low as they can be. We have hydro electric power lines on the property, the damns to the south. This is not just the cheapest power in Canada, it is also the lowest carbon impact power (not burning coal to create electricity to run a mine - that is a win) you can wish for. We are on empty ground - we do not have to expend time, money and energy removing anything, we only have to build. Lastly we have a huge property, with large mineralized systems at surface - this will mean an open pit operation if a mine is built - the cheapest way to mine, the least impactful (no underground development), the lowest cost mine to build. This is a significant advantage as the lower the cost to mine the lower the grade you can mine. But as well - the less we have to do to build the mine the lower the carbon impact of the mine. Now, this last one is where it gets freaky. Rocks are porous and ultramafic rocks have been proven to absorb and sequester carbon - trapping it. We have not done the lab work yet, however lots have and they are working to optimize the absorption (crushing, injecting, wetting etc etc) - but that is pretty wild stuff. If a mine is built it could remove the payable metals from the rock, then the rock would remove carbon from the atmosphere. A positive carbon reduction scenario, science is so cool.
2 - Right now we have not done enough work to tell you what Surimeau is, or specifically what grade or size Victoria and Lalonde are. But people do like answers. So, until we know differently, we are looking at Victoria and Lalonde as large scale low grade nickel polymetallic systems. And hey, maybe what I write today gets proven wrong in the future, so be it, that would be great as the only part of the statement we do not have a handle on yet is the grade, when we drilled it we saw grade increase with depth. So we will see what happens in the future. But back to today - we are not building a mine yet. We are exploring the extent of the systems. But why do we bother? What is the point? The point is not to release press releases, the point is that we already know that large scale low grade open pit mines work. Not for nickel yet in this country as far as I know, though PEAs are out there and the deposit to the north of us about an hour is shovel ready. But look at Australia and Russia - operating open pit nickel mines, in the case of Mt. Keith long lived and low grade, in Russia Norilsk have gone under some of their pits. In this country we see low grade open pit copper mines - nickel is worth more than copper, Victoria and Lalonde hold more than "just" nickel....it really does make sense.
As we progress through our process, learn and do more with the property, it will become clear what we have, and eventually become even clearer if it can be a mine.
Personally I think Surimeau has come along at a great time, the bar we will have to meet one day, the test of whether it is economic, is definitely in the future, after a good bunch of drilling. But that bar could not be much lower in my opinion, between our logistics setting, our "green" setting (I am not going off on a green nickel tangent here), our size between the two systems, with Lalonde still open, the surface occurrence and the polymetallic nature of the mineralization - all of this within our macro reality - WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH METAL. Period, end of story. All of this, to me, means we have every cost reduction advantage we could desire, we are able to be responsible in what we do "green", and I also think the commodity prices will go up, due to to lack of supply. All of these factors are, as I see it, positive for Surimeau. Stay tuned, we will grind away at this.
Enough speculation on the future, back to today - here are some pictures from the field, just for fun.
Press release is linked below in English, French will be on our website later today.
PS - my email was pinging so I checked before I sent this - read what Rick wrote about large scale low grade nickel. If you go to google you will also find article by Crux and Battery Material Review, and Rick 10 years ago. Link is below |