With the latest EV battery materials facility announcement by Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and South Korean companies EcoPro BM Co. and SK On Co., it would appear Quebec is pushing hard to be a global competitor in the EV supply chain. Granted it was probably a pretty easy decision for Ford and its partners given the Federal and Provincial governments are investing a combined C$644 million of the estimated C$1.2 billion cost of the project. However, that should likely give a leg up for any critical material miners in Quebec who suddenly find themselves on the doorstep of a burgeoning EV battery hub in Bécancour.

One company hoping to take advantage of this situation is Murchison Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: MUR | OTCQB: MURMF), a Canadian‐based exploration Company focused on nickel-copper-cobalt exploration at the 100% – owned Haut-Plateau Manicouagan (HPM) Project in Quebec and the exploration and development of the 100% – owned Brabant Lake zinc‐copper‐silver (BMK) project in north‐central Saskatchewan. Murchison considers both the HPM and BMK projects to be top tier undervalued exploration projects, both with significant scale to host numerous deposits in areas that remain considerably underexplored. The projects are in two of the best mining jurisdictions in Canada and arguably the world.

As you can probably guess from the intro, today we are going to focus on the HPM Project. The HPM project consists of a massive 951 km² land package. It is highly prospective to host nickel-copper-cobalt mineralization, particularly at the Barre de Fer (BDF) and Syrah targets, where significant mineralization has already been encountered. Other potential catalysts for the advancement of the HPM project include significant pre-existing infrastructure with a maintained highway, rail, and available hydropower (indicating any future production could be done with net zero emissions) all within kilometres. Combine that with the fact that the Government of Quebec is implementing a vertically integrated critical minerals strategy places HPM in a pretty solid position.

But all the promise in the world means nothing if there isn’t a commercially viable resource to develop. The Company believes that drill results at HPM speak for themselves and drill hole BDF22-002 is one of the top nickel sulphide intersections made at a pre-resource project globally over the last several years. The hole was drilled to a depth of 452 m and intersected two broad zones of Ni-Cu-Co sulphide bearing mineralization totaling 175.15 m of composite thickness including:

• 121.20 m grading 1.36% NiEq. or 4.07% CuEq. (123.80 to 245.0 m)
  • Including 10.10 m at 2.78% NiEq. or 8.31% CuEq. (134.1 to 144.20 m)
  • Including 21.00 m at 3.21% NiEq. or 9.59% CuEq. (152.5 to 173.5 m)

  • Including 10.50 m at 1.76% NiEq. or 5.27% CuEq. (207.5 to 218.0 m)

Mineralization has now been intersected at BDF down to 475 m, over a strike length of 370 m and over a width of 200 m in multiple lens, individually up to 48 m thick. Beyond BDF, Syrah and PYC, regional prospecting has discovered 10 additional nickel sulphide outcroppings and subcroppings at surface including: Malbec, Dix, Taureau, Loup, and Orignal. Mineralization at Malbec is some of the highest tenor nickel discovered to date on the HPM property, along with intersecting semi-massive nickel-sulphide mineralization at the Taureau showing.

For 2023, Murchison is planning to follow up on last year’s positive drill results at the BDF zone as well as continue its prospecting activities property wide. Last week the Company announced the commencement of its 2023 summer exploration program at its Ni-Cu-Co HPM Project, which was delayed somewhat due to the wildfire situation in Quebec earlier this summer. The program is two-pronged with both prospecting on high-priority anomalies, and a deep penetrating ground electromagnetic (EM) survey being conducted.

The ground EM component will target nickel bearing sulphide mineralization at depth within the BDF Zone and the Syrah target. The detailed ground EM survey will utilize a low temperature (liquid helium cooled) super conductor technology called Jessy Deep SQUID (Super conducting Quantum Interference Device) technology. The Jessy Deep SQUID system is considered to be the most sensitive currently in use and Discovery Geophysics has exclusive rights to the technology in North America.

This type of EM system is an ideal survey type to identify so called “super conductors” which are electromagnetic anomalies that are too conductive to be effectively measured and identified by airborne EM systems. This super conductive phenomenon is typical in many of the world’s magmatic nickel mining camps such as Voisey’s Bay or Sudbury. The recent geophysical modeling at the BDF zone from borehole EM data demonstrates that this zone is indeed super conductive and Murchison strongly suspects a similar super conductor is being observed at the Syrah target making this geophysical survey critical for drill targeting.

Additionally, Murchison just closed C$1.5 million non-brokered private placement, which combined with the C$1.4 million in cash the Company had at the end of March, 2023 should provide sufficient capital to drive both HPM and BMK projects forward.

Murchison Minerals Ltd. trades at a market cap of C$9.6 million.

Murchison Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: MUR | OTCQB: MURMF) has recently announced results of its summer exploration program at its wholly owned HPM (Haut-Plateau de la Manicouagan) property. This included an aerial geophysical survey of the 648 km2 (250 square miles), ground prospecting and diamond drilling with the plan to produce a maiden resource early 2023. The original discovery by Falconbridge of a Nickel-Copper-Cobalt mineralization dates to 1999.

What is interesting about the location is that it is only 8 kms (5 miles) to the rail line from Fermont/Labrador city and Port Cartier:

Source: Company website

As you can see it is also close to hydro-electric power which gives this opportunity two very important and strategic advantages over a lot of other potential mining opportunities in the Canadian north. It should also reduce CAPEX and OPEX as power will not have to be generated on site and material can be shipped in and out with relative ease. It is also 40 kms (25 miles) from the provincial Highway 389.

Two years ago, the Quebec government started the Quebec Action Plan on Critical Materials, which this deposit would fall under should the project move forward. The Quebec government is very supportive and proactive in the mining industry and the development of projects, particularly in the northern part of the province.

There are several targets of interest at HPM, the key one being their Barre de Fer target which reported an intercept of 43.15 meters grading 1.74% Ni, 0.90% Cu and 0.09% Co. By comparison, Voisey’s Bay on average was 1.63% nickel, 0.85% copper and 0.09% cobalt. On September 7th Murchison reported the pXRF results from a new 404 m drill hole that intersected four broad zones of Ni-Cu-Co sulphide bearing mineralization totalling 130.00 m of composite thickness, and returning 18.05 m estimated at 1.98% pXRF Ni Eq. (89.95 to 108.0 m) including 8.1 m at 3.45% pXRF Ni Eq., and 69.90 m estimated at 0.68% pXRF Ni Eq. (267.0 to 336.90 m) including 16.1 m at 1.4% pXRF Ni Eq. This ongoing exploration, the company says, is aimed at completing a maiden resource on Barre de Fer by early Q1 of 2023. The question is will they approach the 141 million tonnes of ore of Voisey’s Bay, which made it a world class discovery.

The other project Murchison is working on is the 100% – owned Brabant McKenzie (BMK) zinc‐copper‐silver project in Northern Saskatchewan, located about 170km northeast of La Ronge. This is a VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphide) Zn-Cu-Pb-Ag-Au deposit which was originally prospected in the 1950s and 1960s. In September 2018 there was a NI 43-101 upgraded report with an indicated resource of 2.1 million tonnes at 9.98% zinc equivalent and an inferred resource of 7.6 million tonnes at 6.29% zinc equivalent. This was based on 138 drill holes with a cutoff of 3.5% zinc equivalent.

VMS deposits are widely distributed with major deposits in Canada being Kidd Creek, near Timmins, Ontario, and Bathurst in New Brunswick. The Kidd Creek mine, which has operated since 1966, is run by Glencore and is the deepest base metal mine in the world at 2,735 meters (8,973 feet) below sea level. The Bathurst mine suspended operations last month and the owner, Trevali, has delisted its shares from the TSX. The following table compares the Murchison deposit to Kidd Creek:

	Tonnes	Zinc %	Copper %	Silver g/t
Kidd Creek 2020	5 million	3.60%	1.80%	44.0
Murchison indicated	2.1 million	7.08%	0.69%	39.6
Murchison inferred	7.6 million	4.46%	0.57%	18.42

Murchison’s Brabant Lake project has a maintained road – Saskatchewan Highway 102 – and existing power lines running through the property, which again points to management looking at projects with strong infrastructure. The drive from the local community of Brabant Lake to Saskatoon is about six hours. Last year’s preliminary metallurgical work produced a 50% zinc concentrate with an 85% recovery.

Both projects are early stage but have promising potential and looking forward to additional results. Certainly worth keeping an eye on this company as more updates come out on these properties.