Group Ten Metals – Review Of 2021 Exploration Work And Recap Of The Maiden Resource Estimate At Stillwater West
Michael Rowley, President and CEO of Group Ten Metals (TSX.V: PGE – OTCQB: PGEZF) joins us for a year-end update on the exploration work and a recap of the maiden resource estimate at the Company’s flagship Stillwater West PGE-Ni-Cu-Co + Au project in Montana.
Thus far only 2 drill holes have been reported out of the 14 drill holes reported from the step-out exploration program that will be focused primarily on 2 of the most advanced targets – Chrome Mountain, and the Iron Mountain/CZ/HGR. Hole # CZ2021-01 returned 63.7 Meters of 0.92% Nickel Equivalent Mineralization (2.46 g/t Palladium Equivalent), and hole # CM2021-01 returned the longest mineralized intercept ever recorded in the Stillwater district with 728 meters of continuous sulphide mineralization at 0.27% NiEq, or 0.73 g/t PdEq, including contained intervals of successively higher grades.
We review some of the other targets the company has drilled or plans to drill connecting the five deposits over the 9 km mineralized trend. Next we have Mike unpack the compelling mix of metals at Stillwater West, the current resource size, and how this compares to peer projects with their inferred mineral resources totalling 2.4 million ounces of palladium, platinum, rhodium, and gold; plus and additional 1.1 billion pounds of nickel, copper, and cobalt.
The Company has transacted the high-grade Black Lake-Drayton Gold project under a 90% earn-in option agreement with a new to list company Heritage Metals, and is reviewing various options for the Kluane PGE-Ni-Cu-Co project on trend with Nickel Creek Platinum’s Wellgreen deposit in Canada’s Yukon Territory.
If you have any follow up questions for Mike regarding Group Ten, please email us at Fleck@kereport.com or Shad@kereport.com.
Is It Time For Lower Grade Nickel Sulphide Projects To Shine?
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Matt Fernley – Wednesday December 22, 2021
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“The bidding war over Noront Resources and the flurry of nickel offtake agreements announced between automakers and nickel producers seems to suggest that EV and battery industry participants have (at last) woken up to the impending scarcity of class 1 nickel resources. As we discussed in November’s other BMR Focus article, we believe that ternary (high nickel) chemistries will remain vital in EV land for at least the next decade, probably longer, which means that the demand story for nickel will remain intact. With the bidding war for Noront continuing, we ask – what next for nickel?”
“We believe that it’s time for lower grade nickel sulphide projects, historically shunned by the market, to start to shine.”
“Nowhere is this more evident than in the acquisition of the Santa Rita mine by Sibanye-Stillwater, which was announced in October. The overall resource grade of the project (open pit and underground) amounts to 0.54% nickel, but the takeout multiple is much higher than the previous multiple for a major low grade sulphide project – the Dumont project, which was acquired in 2020.”
“Now, let’s look at Canada Nickel’s Crawford project. Its May 2021 PEA supports a project with initial mill capacity of 42.5Mtpa, ramping up to 85Mtpa in phase 2 and potentially to 120Mtpa. Nickel head grades would start at c.0.32%, falling to 0.25% by phase 3 and nickel production in phase 1 would be 23Ktpa rising to 42Ktpa by phase 3. Based on the company’s cost, and nickel price assumptions of US$7.75/lb, the project could yield EBITDA of US$287m pa in phase 1, rising to US$538m pa thereafter.”
“So, let’s just compare current nickel and copper prices. As of 29th October, the LME nickel price was US$19,820/t and the LME copper price was US$9,855/t. So, nickel was worth 2.01x what copper was worth.”
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(PGE) (PGEZF) Group Ten Metals World-Class Critical Minerals Resource in the USA
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Investing News Network
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“Group Ten Metals is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on advancing its large-scale flagship Stillwater West platinum, palladium, nickel, copper, cobalt and gold project in Montana, USA. The project is located in the iconic Stillwater Complex of Montana, USA, a rare world-class magmatic system that is geologically similar to the Bushveld Complex in South Africa which hosts the Flatreef, Mogalakwena and Waterberg deposits as well as numerous high-grade platinum deposits within the Merensky and UG2 reefs. Similarly, the Stillwater district hosts Sibanye-Stillwater, currently operating the world’s highest grade PGE mines along the analogous J-M reef, as well as Group Ten’s Stillwater West project.”
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https://investingnews.com/group-ten-metals-tsxv-pge/
Group Ten Delivers More High Grade Platinum Group Metals
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Bob Moriarty – Dec 22, 2021
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“I see exactly the same thing happening this year into January as happened five years ago. Stocks rocketed higher for the next seven months. This is the season to be picking the low hanging fruit.”
“Certainly Group Ten Metals (PGE-V) would qualify as low hanging fruit. The company has a 25 km strike package located adjacent to the $2.8 billion dollar Sibanye-Stillwater platinum/palladium mines in Montana. Sibanye-Stillwater has produced over 14 million ounces of pd+pt. They report 26.9 million pd+pt ounces in P+P reserves.”
“Group Ten has been busy drilling and expanding their resources and moving the company forward without a lot of respect from the market. In October of this year they released a 43-101 showing 157 million tonnes in inferred resources at an average of 0.45 total nickel equivalent. That’s $89 rock at today’s prices.”
“If you work out the numbers, they have reported right at $14 billion dollars worth of rock in the ground. If someone bought them and paid 1% of the gross metal in the ground value, that would be $140 million. Meanwhile the company is selling for $64 million. That seems absurd to me.”
“On December 20th the company reported partial results from the first two holes of a fourteen-hole drill program to expand the resource. The results were barn burning and included 63.7 meters of 0.92% NiEq within a 367 meter continuous mineralization at 0.31% NiEq. The hole returned the longest intercept ever recorded in the Stillwater district with 728 meters of solid sulfide mineralization.”
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http://www.321gold.com/editorials/moriarty/moriarty122221.html
My buy list just continues to grow…..this is definitely one for 2022…..tax loss selling in my 2 fav copper plays sucked up the last of my free cash. Especially the black wolf getting below .60 this morning. Hopefully I can do a quick flip and still get some group ten below .40 in the new year. My suspicion is it will run before I buy and then my bitterness and stubbornness will overcome me as it finally gets to proper(or dare I say over) valued levels.
Haha! Yeah, there are no shortage of interesting opportunities on sale at present. Well the good news is that Group Ten is FAR from over-valued here, especially considering the insitu value of all the battery metals and precious metals they’ve already outlined in their maiden resource, not to mention, all the drilling they did this year still awaiting assays that will be part of next year’s updated resource estimate.
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Bob Moriarty nailed it here with this comment (also posted up above):
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“If you work out the numbers, they have reported right at $14 billion dollars worth of rock in the ground. If someone bought them and paid 1% of the gross metal in the ground value, that would be $140 million. Meanwhile the company is selling for $64 million. That seems absurd to me.”
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To me personally, the better question expanding on Bob M’s point is:
What if people valued Group Ten on 3%-5% of their $14 Billion dollars worth of metal in the ground thus far? 😉
Could they initially truck their ore to Stillwater for processing or would they have to build their own facilities?
Mike has stated in previous interviews that it makes the most sense to just truck the ore to the facilities that Sibanye has at their Stillwater project, and they also have smelters and processing centers nearby. It will come down to doing a toll milling agreement, or it is not at all out of the question that Sibanye just acquires their neighbors at Group Ten Metals.
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As a 3rd option, a much larger base metals producer could build a mill on site of PGE’s Stillwater West project, as it is already big enough to warrant that, but it would be more expensive, so the most likely path forward is to work out an agreement with (SBSW).
Closed over .30 cents. Let us see if it can keep going.
Mike Rowley mentioned this bidding war for fellow Nickel junior Noront Resources and there was just an update out earlier this week:
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Noront picks Wyloo’s Latest Offer, BHP Won’t Match
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Cecilia Jamasmie – December 21, 2021
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“Wyloo’s improved offer values Noront at C$616.9 million ($477.2 million) and is 57% higher than its prior bid. The company said it would help cover Noront’s termination fee to BHP with a loan.”
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https://www.mining.com/noront-picks-wyloos-latest-offer-gives-bhp-five-days-to-match/