Analysts at investment dealer Couloir Capital have initiated coverage on Tartisan Nickel Corp. (CSE:TN, OTCQX:TTSRF), which is advancing its flagship Kenbridge nickel property in mining-friendly Ontario, with a “Buy” rating.

In a note to clients, Couloir also noted that it was initiating coverage on the Toronto, Ontario-based mineral exploration and development company with a target share price of $0.46 over the next 12 months. This represents a significant upside as Tartisan shares currently trade around $0.22 on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE).

Tartisan is looking to advance its flagship Kenbridge nickel-sulphide deposit with significant copper in Ontario from a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) through to feasibility and ultimately production.

READ: Tartisan Nickel closes nearly C$1.8M financing to fund Kenbridge project development

“The asset has the potential to produce a nickel product that can be further converted to service the battery market for electric vehicles (EV),” said Couloir analysts.

Rosy preliminary economic assessment  

The company published an updated PEA in 2022 incorporating a revised resource estimate based on updated cost metrics and including new drill hole data gathered in the last drilling campaign.

The document outlines a resource of over 33,000 million tons contained nickel in the measured and indicated category, average annual production of around 3,300 million tons (MT) of nickel per year over a nine-year mine life, and a modest initial CAPEX of $134 million, noted Couloir.

Significantly, the analysts said that after-tax NPV using a 5% discount rate was estimated to be $110 million.

According to Couloir, Tartisan has “strong underlying market fundamentals.”

“Demand for nickel is forecast to remain strong for the foreseeable future, driven to a large extent by the rapidly increasing production of EVs,” said the analysts. “Of the total demand growth anticipated until 2025, 35% is estimated to be attributable to the EV sector.”

The analysts pointed out that the project is in a “highly ranked mining jurisdiction.”

“Stringent environmental and social standards are applied, which is sought after by EV battery makers who closely scrutinize the value chain,” they added.

In another positive, the large proportion of insider ownership strongly aligns management interest with that of shareholders, concluded Couloir.

In addition to its flagship Kenbridge nickel project in northwestern Ontario, Tartisan owns the Sill Lake silver property in Marie, Ontario as well as the Don Pancho manganese-zinc-lead-silver project in Peru. 

Tartisan also holds several minority interests in other resource companies in North and South America, currently totaling around $4.6 million in value. This portfolio is skewed towards holdings in precious and base metals companies.

Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at [email protected]