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.
16 THE PRIVATE INVESTOR | FALL + WIN TER 2019
M
NEW VENTURES
Nickel has been the
best performing
base metal this past
year rising 47% in
value year-to-date.