While %Nickel prices being down in 2023 is the headline, there is far more interesting subtext. Prices on the London Metal Exchange are teetering around $21,000 per metric ton against the backdrop of suspected slowing global economies and stockpiles starting to build. However, where the builds are happening is worth noting.
The U.S. and Canada have both made it clear that they want to increase domestic production of critical minerals integral to %ElectricVehicles as part of decarbonization initiatives and growing domestic security. The stockpiles are happening in Asia. In the first quarter, nickel production in Indonesia surged 18.5% to 302,900 tonnes compared to a year earlier (55,700 tonnes) after the country banned nickel ore imports and investments in its own nickel industry.
In China, nickel production jumped 27.7% to 212,000 tonnes during Q1, a move spurred on by Beijing’s wish to hoard the metal and lower dependence on exports.
A look at specific nickel plays in North America speaks to a disconnect in falling prices and potentially filling future domestic demand. Many companies remain in an uptrend in 2023. %FPXNickel (TSX-Venture: $FPX) (OTCQB: FPOCF) is ahead this year, and the %SprottNickelMiners (NASDAQ: $NIKL), which only launched in March, is up about 10%, as is %FirstQuantumMinerals (TSX: $FM) (OTCQX: FQVLF).
One of the biggest gainers in the space is FathomNickel (CSE: $FNI) (OTCQB: $FNICF), a company that continues to gain momentum as it amasses a dominant land package in the prolific Trans Hudson Corridor in Saskatchewan. Shares of the company ended 2022 at 6 Canadian cents, rising since to as high as C$0.28 in June.
The Trans-Hudson Corridor, which spans 2,000+ kilometers in North America from north-central U.S. up into Saskatchewan before turning right and heading throughout eastern Canada, is a hotbed of mineral exploration. Part of the lauded Canadian Shield, the corridor is host to many critical and precious metals, including gold, nickel, platinum, and copper.
Fathom has amassed a massive position at the elbow where the corridor turns east in Canada, a region quickly demonstrating district-scale potential for nickel.
After a brief pullback from the 52-week high, the stock is moving again on the back of news that Fathom acquired more land for its portfolio. Through direct staking, Fathom acquired a new 3,060-hectare disposition at its Gochager Lake Project, bringing its total contiguous land package at the project to 22,620 hectares.
The new land is located approximately three kilometers due south of the site of Fathom's recent Gochager Lake exploration program within the “Area of Interest” clause of the company’s Gochager Lake option agreement.
Ian Fraser, CEO and VP Exploration at Fathom Nickel commented that the acquisition of the new property is important for a couple of reasons.
1. It ensures that Fathom's land package now fully encompasses 13 of the 15 high-priority targets recently identified by the company’s structural interpretation of the historic 2008 VTEM (Very Time-Domain Electromagnetics) survey. A VTEM study is a type of geophysical survey developed in the 1990s that is used to map the electrical conductivity of the subsurface to define exploration targets.
2. It provides an additional "buffer" in the area of the Mal Lake nickel occurrence where a 1967 drillhole intersected 1.12% Ni (nickel), 0.24% Cu (copper) over 7.9 meters. The Mal Lake nickel occurrence exhibits similar characteristics to the Gochager Lake deposit, located 10 kilometers to the northwest.
Fathom’s exploration includes a recently completed TDEM (Time-Domain Electromagnetics) program at the Tremblay-Olson Claims Area at the Albert Lake Project. Surface TDEM and borehole electromagnetic (BHEM) surveys at the Gochager Lake project are expected to be completed by July 14, 2023.
Fathom will share the data upon completed analysis and use the results from the geophysics programs to generate new drill targets at both the Albert Lake and Gochager Lake projects, which are located in close proximity to each other. This is a second round of BHEM at Gochager Lake, which is expected to be completed in the coming days and should keep investors looking for the next batch of results. BHEM data is instrumental in evaluating previously drilled holes to signs of nickel, providing Fathom with the opportunity to deepen or twin historic holes or drill new holes to expand the defined mineralization.
The next round of drilling is expected to begin mid-August as the company continues to make its presence known in central Canada by targeting magmatic nickel sulfide discoveries.
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Fathom Nickel Inc. (CSE: FNI) (OTC: FNICF) Full Corporate Write-Up: Click Here.
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