140 million pounds of nickel

5 high quality exploration projects + Lockerby Mine, Sudbury On

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First Nickel Inc. Profile

First Nickel Inc., Toronto, Ontario, TSX : FNI, is one of Canada's premier nickel / copper explorers, with resources identified exceeding 140 million pounds of nickel.

The Company has five high quality exploration Projects including the Lockerby Mine which was acquired from Falconbridge in 2005.

Exploring the Potential of Nickel

  • Pure nickel investment opportunity in Ontario
  • Portfolio of high quality exploration properties
  • Strong project pipeline
  • Track record of low cost discoveries
  • Strong balance sheet- Cash >$10 M
  • $3.0 million Budget for 2009 ($4.5 M flow through financing completed in August 08)
  • 17,000 meters of proposed diamond drilling
  • Exploring outside Sudbury basin at eastern and northern Ontario

Projects

  • West Graham
  • Raglan Hills Project
  • Belmont Project
  • Lockerby Mine –High Grade Nickel Mine (Production suspended In October ’08)
  • Exploration continues in Sudbury basin at Lockerby and West Graham for footwall and contact targets

Exploration – outside Sudbury basin - Targets - Voisey’s Bay Area

  • Bay style nickel copper PGE deposit
  • Over 40 known nickel-copper occurrences
  • Similar geology to Michigan’s Upper Pennisula
  • Under-explored region of Ontario

First Nickel has successfully increased the indicated resources at its Lockerby Mine ten-fold since it was acquired in 2005. As a result of persisting low metal prices, production at the mine was suspended and the facility placed on care and maintenance status in October 2008.

A July 2008 Prefeasibility Study on the development and mining of the Lockerby Depth, prepared by Genivar Limited Partnership, estimates:

  • an IRR of 69.3%
  • undiscounted pre-tax cash flow of $78.20 million after capital recovery*
  • metal production totaling 46 million pounds payable nickel, 37 million pounds payable copper, and 900 thousand pounds payable cobalt.
  • unit cash operating costs net of by-product credits are estimated at US$6.08 per pound of nickel over the 5.2 year mine plan, attaining a low of US$5.70/lb in peak production years of 420,000tpy.

* assuming average metal prices of US$10.23/lb Ni, US$ 2.31/lb Cu, and US$ 14.26/lb Co. An exchange rate of $C/$US 1.05 was used for this study

Last changed at 02-Feb-2009 03:00AM by Highgrader