Canada Silver Cobalt Strategic Metals For The EV Market
There are things we just know about the electric vehicle (EV) market. We know that, in spite of the COVID pandemic, EV registrations saw a marked increase in 2020. We know that, just one year later, sales of electric vehicles doubled in the United States and tripled in China — and we know that, by 2030, the market is projected to reach 800 billion dollars by 2030. But we know something else, too. We know that nickel, copper, and cobalt are valuable EV metals… and we just happen to know a property that hosts all three.
If you’re an investor in Canada Silver, by now you’re probably well acquainted with their Graal-Nourricier-Lac Suzanne property — but if that isn’t the case, know that back in 2020 and 2021 the Company began staking and acquiring several properties in a strategic move to add to their current cobalt mineralization discoveries in the ground-breaking Cobalt Camp. The result? 87 owned and 23 optioned claims that cover a total of 6,113 hectares, more commonly known as the Graal property. That’s right, in anticipating the increasing demand for EV battery metals, Canada Silver laid claim to an area that, back in early 2021, was identified by an airborne geophysical survey as the most geologically prospective of the five properties surveyed.
So why are we talking about Graal in particular? Well, earlier this month, you might’ve seen the Company’s announcement detailing the commencement of a historic 5,000m drill program. And, if we venture even further back this year, you might remember that this program comes off the heels of the positive assay results Canada Silver received from Graal. And by positive, we mean assays which included intercepts of up to 2.08% nickel and 3.75% copper returns from the Company’s first three diamond drill holes. Suffice to say, Canada Silver was ecstatic about these interceptions of massive sulphides at their Graal property. And why wouldn’t they be? They’d received hard proof from these assays that, through the power and potential of Graal, Canada Silver can and will hit nickel and copper grades right off the bat.
And remember that nickel has become a very hot commodity. A few years back, Chairman and CEO Frank Basa spent some very lucrative time in China and Japan… and it was during that tenure that he ended up paying Nissan a visit. You might not be surprised to hear that they spoke at length about battery metals. The way Nissan sees it, while the lithium-ion battery will not disappear, the chemistry of it will change significantly. Because of this, they are looking for nickel in particular. Why? Well, because as abundant as cobalt is — there’s simply not enough to build all batteries needed. Luckily, Canada Silver intends to take advantage of Graal — a property known to host critical energy metals, which is to say, a property that has significant grades of nickel and copper alongside a nice cobalt by-product. And since Canada Silver’s intention is to produce cobalt sulphate, nickel sulphate, and copper sulphate for North America’s exploding EV market, of course the Graal property would present a huge amount of value to the Company.
So, Canada Silver’s 5,000m program is ongoing. The campaign was put on pause earlier this year so that Canada Silver could receive their pending assay data as well as the data from the completion of their geophysical survey — a cessation which officially ended when Canada Silver received all pending assays from their previous drill campaign. Thanks to these results, the Company can move forward with their Technical Report for Graal. And, folks, the data was good. We’re happy to report that nearly every one of their drill holes was disseminated to huge sulphides with nickel-copper-cobalt mineralization. In particular, we’d direct your attention to two drill holes separated from one another by roughly 100m. The first is NRC-22-26, which intersected 5.80 meters of massive to disseminated sulphides. This drill hole’s assay results grade 0.89% Ni Eq, 0.57% Ni, 0.41% Cu, and 0.08% Co from 135.00m to 140.80m. The results of the second were released back in April; you might remember the NRC-22-24, which intersected 1.20% Ni Eq, 0.72% Ni, 0.86% Cu, and 0.09% Co over 9.30m from 142.80m to 152.10m.
Which brings us to now — Canada Silver’s current 5,000m drill campaign, a program that has been specifically tailored to test the high-priority anomalies uncovered from their most recent geophysical surveys, and that is being conducted by Laurentia Exploration in association with GoldMinds Geoservices Inc. Expect this program to give particular attention to the large 1.7km by 850m anomaly as identified in their recent geophysical survey. Yes, this survey has brought Canada Silver a plethora of new targets, but right now let’s hone in on that one large anomaly. The fact that it dips to the west is fantastic news; Canada Silver knows where the anomaly is dipping and, courtesy of their talented geophysicists, they have generated a good number of panels so as to continue drilling and hit better intercepts.
Now, that anomaly may be the main focus, but historic work has also revealed a large 6km EM-conductor — meaning that Canada Silver now has targets all along the conductor — and the beginning of their last drill program revealed yet another discovery to the Northwest. So, expect lots and lots of intelligent drilling in this ongoing program, and stay tuned for more updates coming from Canada Silver. And remember: this further step into Graal also means a further step toward Canada Silver’s goal of becoming an important battery metals supplier in a bountiful EV market!
Best regards,
Lemuel Daher
Corporate Communications