It is not often investors can invest in a junior mining company that not only plans to produce green metals such as nickel but also plans to use carbon credits along the way to offset their emissions while developing a project using the latest exploration technologies.

Today a company is doing just that and the company is Power Nickel Inc. (TSXV: PNPN | OTCQB: PNPNF).

On January 26, 2023, Power Nickel announced that it was purchasing Karbon-X’s carbon credits to offset its 2023 drill program emissions. Power Nickel CEO, Terry Lynch summarizes well stating:

“These offsets will neutralize the Diesel fuel we will use to drill approximately 40,000 metres of drilling. It symbolizes our goal of creating the world’s first carbon neutral Nickel mine at our Nisk Project in Nemaska, Quebec. … Miners are amongst the most environmentally friendly people I know and we need to start showing the world we can and will find responsible ways to find the materials needed to power the greening of our economy. This is a modest first step for us and I would hope other miners will follow our lead.“

Power Nickel aims to be Canada’s next low carbon high grade nickel mine

Power Nickel to use the latest exploration technologies to find high-grade nickel at their Nisk Project

In another positive sign that Power Nickel is a futuristic green company, the Company announced on January 31, 2023 a partnership with Fleet Space Technologies. Fleet Space Technologies is a developer and operator of a constellation of micro-satellites that delivers universal connectivity globally. Power Nickel will use Fleet Space Technologies’ innovative sound mapping technology to locate additional high-grade nickel sulfide deposits with a greater level of accuracy. The technology has already delivered promising results in exploration projects for high-grade nickel in Michigan and Minnesota. The announcement stated:

“The data can be used to develop a full 3D visualization of the subsurface down to 2 km depth. Fleet’s Geodes are up to 10x more sensitive than existing nodal geophones, leading to better accuracy and depth of results. The exploration team can get a clear, rich image of what resources may be below ground in a period that can be as short as four days.”

Update on drilling at Power Nickel’s flagship Nisk (nickel sulphide) Project

On January 12, 2023, Power Nickel reported: “Power Nickel extends PN-22-009 nickel mineralization from 25 to 40m” at their 80% owned Nisk Project in Quebec, Canada. Drill hole PN-22-009 assay resulted in 0.88% nickel (“Ni”), 0.56% copper(“Cu”), 0.06% cobalt (“Co”), 1.64 parts-per-million (“ppm”) palladium (“Pd”) and 0.15 ppm platinum (“Pt”) over 40.30 metres (“m”). The 0.88% nickel grade is reasonable, but key is the great by-products and the 40m drill length. The Company seemed excited by the results as it immediately announced a “quadrupling” of the 2022/2023 drilling program from 2,500m to 10,000m.

The drill program continues at Nisk with a goal to grow the resource and amend an NI 43-101 Technical Report that was released in July 2022. The Company is working to prepare an amended technical report as it was asked by regulators to conduct an updated metallurgical analysis and also fulfill the requirement for a new site visit to the Nisk Project by an author of the Technical Report.

The historic resource estimates at the Nisk project on the Company’s website are of historic nature and therefore caution is appropriate since these historic estimates cannot, and should not be relied upon, but are: Measured & Indicated Resource of 2.04 million tonnes at 1.05% Ni, 0.55% Cu, 0.07% Co, 1.03 g/t Pd, and 0.23 g/t Pt, and an Inferred Resource of 1.05 million tonnes at 0.81% Ni, 0.32% Cu, 0.06% Co, 1.06 g/t Pd, and 0.50 g/t Pt.

Power Nickel Nisk Main block model with further drill assay results due out soon

The next steps for Power Nickel include releasing drill assay results, the 2023 drilling campaign, amending & updating the NI 43-101 technical report due in Q2/2023 or early Q3/2023, gravity, seismic, and sound imaging data results on other pods across the property, and then to initiate a further 15,000m Phase 4 drill program.

Closing remarks

Power Nickel is not only delivering consistent drill results, the Company is adopting the latest exploration technologies and offsetting their emissions with carbon credits. ESG funds and investors looking for true green metals companies should take note.

Power Nickel trades on a market cap of approximately C$50 million. 2023 will be a very busy year with lots of news flow and what looks like a potentially growing resource. Stay tuned.

The nickel market has been red hot in 2022 as Russian supply chain risks intensified. Russia is a major nickel exporter. The huge spike in the chart was caused by a short-seller squeeze that resulted in the London Metals Exchange having to halt nickel trading.

Nickel one year price chart showing nickel’s steady rise on strong demand and constrained supply , particularly with concerns over Russian supply

Source: Trading Economics

Nickel miners have naturally benefited from higher nickel prices over the past year. The nickel miners that tend to do best are those with growing nickel sulphide projects in safe jurisdictions. Today’s company has 4 projects (nickel sulfide and copper-gold) in the safe jurisdiction of Canada.

Fjordland Exploration Inc. (TSXV: FEX) (Fjordland) is an exploration stage miner with a focus on nickel, copper, and gold in Canada.

Fjordland’s four projects in Canada include:

• South Voisey’s Bay Project (currently owns 75% with an option to earn-in to a 100% interest). 29,400 hectares (29.4 Sq.Km) prospective for nickel, copper and cobalt. Note: Ivanhoe Electric is a private company led by Robert Friedland, which has the right to earn 65% of the project from Fjordland once Ivanhoe Electric has spent $5 million.
• Renzy Nickel-Copper Project (option to earn-in to a 100% interest). 86 km2 property with the past producing Renzy Mine and a Historical NI-43-101 Resource estimate (indicated 51,000 tonnes 0.79% Ni and 0.72% Cu) not yet to be relied upon. Past drilling included 10.8 m of 1.3% nickel and 1.8% copper.
  
• Milligan West Project (43% JV partner with Northwest Copper Corp). Copper-gold porphyry potential. The Project lies immediately west of Centerra’s Mt. Milligan Mine.
  
• Witch Project (100% interest) – 100 km2 property about 35kms from the Milligan West Project. Copper-gold porphyry potential.

A summary and location map showing Fjordland’s four exploration projects in Canada

Source: Fjordland Exploration Inc. company presentation

Next steps for Fjordland

In 2022 Fjordland will be reviewing data from their Witch Project acquisition. They also expect to receive project funding from Ivanhoe Electric as part of their agreement at the South Voisey’s Bay Project. Fjordland is also currently drilling at their Renzy Nickel Copper Project with a $1 million fully funded program which is expected to be completed by the end of Q2 2022. Results to follow.

Closing remarks

For investors, key attractions of Fjordland are the current low market cap of just C$7 million and the potential exploration upside in some of the best land positions in Canada. Voisey’s Bay is world renowned for nickel with the world’s largest nickel producer Vale operating there. Fjordland has four well-located Canadian projects with potential for nickel, copper, cobalt, and gold.

As of March 2022, management and insider ownership (includes Friedland’s Ivanhoe Electric) is an impressive 45%.

Due to the early stage investors will need plenty of patience while we wait to see what exploration success Fjordland has. Drill results from the Renzy Nickel Copper Project are a key potential stock catalyst in the coming months. Risk is therefore higher due to the early stage, however so is the potential reward. Stay tuned.