The Private Investor - Fall Winter 2019

Shiny New Nickel

By MIKE WHITE, President and CEO, IBK Capital Corp.

ass production
of electric
vehicles (EV) is
set to fuel the
transformation of the
nickel market. Nickel,
the gasoline of the EV
market, is the primary metal used to
manufacture battery cathodes. Canada
Nickel Company (“Canada Nickel”), a
brand-new Canadian nickel venture led by
Mark Selby, plans to be at the forefront of
this transformation. IBK Capital is proud
to be part of the creation of Canada’s
newest nickel company – Canada Nickel.

Nickel has been the best performing base metal this past year rising 47% in value year-to-date. Traditional demand for the metal stems from the stainless-steel sector, but it is new demand from the rapidly growing EV industry that has pundits excited. In the wake of changing climate regulations, it is expected that by

2030 nickel demand for EV batteries will significantly exceed nickel supply.

Medium to long-term supply is constrained with very few net new nickel deposits advancing to production.

Mark Selby’s new nickel venture, Canada Nickel, is about to launch into what he refers to as a “five to seven-year nickel bull run”. The company is consolidating

100% interest in the Crawford nickel-
cobalt sulphide project. Two of the public
companies involved, Spruce Ridge
Resources (“Spruce Ridge”) and Noble
Minerals Exploration (“Noble Minerals”),
will be dividending to shareholders shares
of Canada Nickel received in the property
consolidation. Mark Selby is the former
CEO of Toronto-based Royal Nickel Corp.

(“RNC”), and has been operating in the nickel space for the last 20 years. Prior to his role at RNC, Mark held senior management roles at Quadra Mining and INCO. As RNC’s CEO, Mark unlocked the value of the Dumont Nickel-Cobalt project and was instrumental in the company’s growth. The Crawford project shares multiple parallels with the Dumont project, with nickel and cobalt grades higher at Crawford than they were at Dumont. The Crawford property also hosts measurable amounts of platinum group elements (PGEs). Given Mark Selby’s experience with the Dumont project, he is the ideal candidate to drive Canada Nickel forward.

The Crawford property is located in one of Canada’s most prolific mining districts;

40 kilometres north of Timmins and a
short distance to the historically produc-
ing Kidd Creek mine. The infrastructure
is world-class, including access to labour,
mining services and equipment, as well as
good roads, highways, rail, and an airport.

In addition to strong fundamentals, Canada Nickel will have an equally strong capital structure with 50 million shares outstanding after the private placement into this new company. The oversubscribed private placement of C$5 million will provide the company with enough funds to explore the Crawford nickel deposit by way of drilling and metallurgi-cal testing. Under the terms of the financing, Canada Nickel is planning to issue 13 million common shares at 25

cents per share and 5 million flow-through shares at 35 cents each. Canada Nickel expects to be listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange by December 31,

2019.

IBK Capital Corp. (“IBK Capital”) is pleased to be working with Mark Selby in creating Canada Nickel Company. IBK Capital also helped fund Noble Minerals and Spruce Ridge, raising a total of C$11.2 million for those companies. IBK Capital was also instrumental in the purchase of Project 81 by Noble Minerals, bringing in Franco Nevada to fund the purchase and sourcing a buyer for the surface and timber rights to offset the purchase price. Project 81 hosts the Crawford project and we are delighted Mark Selby has created Canada Nickel based on the Crawford project, reinforcing our belief that Project 81 potentially hosts multiple world-class base metals and gold deposits.

Against the backdrop of underinvestment in the current nickel market, dwindling global stockpiles, and long-term prospects of a demand boost from nickel’s use in EV batteries, Canada Nickel is poised to enter the market as a shiny new source of nickel.