Grid Metals, Teck Resources team up to explore nickel sulphide project in Manitoba

Battery metals explorer Grid Metals (TSXV: GRDM) (OTCQB: MSMGF) will team up with Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A/TECK.B) to advance the Mawka nickel-copper-PGM (platinum group metals) project in southeastern Manitoba.

Under an option agreement entered on Thursday, Teck can acquire up to a 70% interest in the project by spending $15.7 million on the project and making staged cash payments totalling $1.6 million to Grid Metals.

The Canadian mining major can first acquire a 51% interest by making $600,000 in cash payments, including a firm commitment of $400,000, and spending a total of $5.7 million on exploration over four years. To acquire the additional 19%, it needs to spend $10 million on exploration over the following three years.

Should Teck exercise its option, a contractual joint venture will be formed between the two companies. Thereafter, each would fund its pro-rata share of future expenditures on the property or it must incur dilution. If a party's interest is diluted below 10%, that interest would be converted to a 1.5% net smelter return royalty on the project.

"Teck's significant technical and operational know-how will be of immediate benefit to the Makwa nickel project," said Robin Dunbar, Grid Metals' CEO. "Having Teck involved in the project will provide financial support and added technical expertise to give our shareholders the maximum opportunity to participate in a Tier 1 nickel discovery."

Shares of Grid Metals shot up by 12.5% by noon ET on Thursday, for a market capitalization of around $8.2 million.

High-grade nickel resource

Situated on the southern arm of Manitoba's Bird River greenstone belt, approximately 145 km from Winnipeg, the Mawka project features two past-producing nickel sulfide mines, three pit-constrained nickel sulfide resources, and numerous high-grade nickel- and/or copper-rich magmatic sulfide surface showings.

Grid recently published an updated pit-constrained mineral resource for the Makwa deposit, estimated at 14.2 million tonnes grading 0.75% nickel equivalent (NiEq), including a higher-grade core of 4.8 million tonnes at 1.26% NiEq. This resource was calculated from updated historic drill hole data and newer mineralization models from the previous estimate in 2014.

The company says a key aspect of the Makwa mineralization is its high nickel and palladium tenors, making it "very amenable to the production of a high-value nickel sulfide concentrate." In addition, the Bird River belt is a "direct analogue" of the Ring of Fire district in northwestern Ontario in terms of the variety of mineral deposit types and geology, scale and structure.

The primary target rocks at Makwa are ultramafic cumulates of the 30-plus km long Bird River sill. Despite its pedigree as a past nickel producer, a district-scale exploration program could not be enacted until 2023 -- when Grid Metals completed its consolidation of the properties in the belt. A historical property boundary had previously severely hampered exploration for high-grade massive sulfide deposits in the area, Grid says.

In addition to Makwa, Grid Metals also owns a second copper-nickel-PGM project in the Bird River, Mayville, which is currently at the drilling stage and not part of the Teck agreement.