TORONTO, June 13, 2022 /CNW/ – Nickel Creek Platinum Corp. (TSX: NCP) (“Nickel Creek” or the “Company“) is pleased to announce preliminary results from work being conducted on behalf of the Company by Dr. Gregory Dipple at CarbMinLab, University of British Columbia. This preliminary work indicates that samples taken from the Wellgreen deposit at Nickel Creek’s Nickel Shäw Project contain key magnesium-rich minerals that are known to react quickly with carbon dioxide (CO2) in air, such as the mineral Brucite, indicating a significant potential for carbon absorption.
“We started this work with Dr. Dipple in order to work towards an understanding of the potential carbon absorption of our tailings and waste rock that will reduce or even eliminate our greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint.” commented Stuart Harshaw, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nickel Creek, “Having a low carbon nickel product will be beneficial to the downstream processers of our nickel, especially the EV market, where reducing the carbon footprint is a critical part of the green economy.”
A summary of the results is presented below with a detailed summary also available on our website.
Summary
The Wellgreen deposit, which forms part of the Company’s Nickel Shäw Project, contains extensive Ni-Cu-Platinum-Group Elements (PGE) mineralization within mafic to ultramafic rocks. It was assessed for its potential for carbon capture and storage based on samples provided by Nickel Creek. These samples consisted of 45 mineralized pulp and 2 slurry samples that were analyzed for mineral content to assess the abundance of gangue minerals that are known to be reactive to CO2 in air. All 47 samples were assessed with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and 13 were assessed with quantitative X-ray diffraction (qXRD) analysis using the Rietveld method. qXRD results indicate that all but two of the samples were all highly serpentinized ultramafic rocks. TGA indicates that brucite and/ or hydrated magnesium carbonate minerals (e.g., hydromagnesite) were present in 22 of the samples analyzed. Leach testing was completed on four samples (1 control sample to determine Mg leached from serpentine) to assess the leachable Mg content (exclusive of hydromagnesite) and thus confirm the brucite content of the samples. Three of the leach test samples were determined to contain between 1 and 3 weight percent brucite. Brucite content in these samples (that are not representative of the complete tailings stream) represents a capacity to sequester 6 to 22 kg CO2 per tonne of tailings equivalent.
These Wellgreen samples contain the key magnesium-rich minerals such as brucite that are known to react quickly with CO2 in air. Hydromagnesite may represent brucite that has reacted with CO2 in air during sample storage, or could reflect low temperature bedrock alteration. The confirmed presence of brucite and serpentine indicates that there exists significant potential for carbon mineralization within Wellgreen tailings and waste rock. A comparison of mineral content and whole rock chemistry indicates that these minerals can be found in rocks with wt.% Mg contents of 22 or greater.
Next steps will include the creation of a preliminary computed mineralogy model to assess the spatial distribution of rocks within the Wellgreen deposit that have high potential to contain brucite and thus sequester carbon. This model will co-relate the 3D whole geochemical database with the mineralogy test work summarized above.
Scientific and Technical Information
The scientific and technical information disclosed in this news release was reviewed and approved by Cheibany Ould Elemine, Ph.D., P.Geo. of Ensero Solutions, and a “Qualified Person” as defined in National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”).
About Nickel Creek Platinum Corp.
Nickel Creek Platinum Corp. (TSX: NCP; OTCQB: NCPCF) is a Canadian mining exploration and development company and its flagship asset is its 100%-owned Nickel Shäw Project. The Nickel Shäw Project is a large undeveloped nickel sulphide project with a unique mix of metals including copper, cobalt and platinum group metals, located in the Yukon, Canada, one of the most favourable jurisdictions in the world. The Nickel Shäw Project has exceptional access to infrastructure, located three hours west of Whitehorse via the paved Alaska Highway, which further offers year-round access to deep-sea shipping ports in southern Alaska. The Company is also investigating other opportunities for shareholder value creation.
The Company is led by a management team with a proven track record of successful discovery, development, financing and operation of large-scale projects. Our vision is to create value for our shareholders by becoming a leading North American nickel, copper, cobalt and PGM producer.
