Magna Mining has raised nearly $18 million in financing to build a case to revive two former nickel and copper mines near Sudbury.
The Sudbury junior miner announced this week it has closed a private placement of $14.95 million in flow-through shares and $2.95 million in the sale of common shares. The bulk of that money is earmarked for its expanded exploration activities in 2023
In a letter to shareholders, Magna management said the proceeds will fully cover this year’s exploration, plus give them some added flexibility to boost the budget should they discover “success with the drill bit.”
The company is pursuing nickel, platinum group metals and other valuable metals that were bypassed in the footwalls of the Crean Hill Mine, a former Inco underground operation, near Whitefish. It closed in 2002 after an 80-year run.
Soon after finalizing the acquisition of Crean Hill from Lonmin Canada last fall, the company launched a 2,000-metre surface drilling program and have been releasing a steady newsflow of high-grade hits since December as the results come in.
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The drill results will be folded into a preliminary economic assessment (PEA), now underway and due out in the second quarter.
Magna also released a mineral resource estimate of the property in November showing more than 31 million tonnes of nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, palladium and gold still in the ground. This was based on previous drillng from Lonmin and Inco (now Vale).
The PEA will show the economics of the project and explain the synergies of Crean Hill and Magna’s other project, Shakespeare, a briefly operated open-pit mine with nickel, copper and platinum group metal potential, north of McKerrow.
Magna wants to include both properties as part of a hub-and-spoke mining and processing model. Shakespeare is already permitted to host a 4,500-tonne-per-day processing plant and a tailings pond.
In early January, Magna embarked on a larger 15,000-metre drill program at Crean Hill will which be the foundation of this year’s exploration work.
Magna believes Crean Hill, now called as the Denison Project, has both open-pit and underground mining potential and easily could be put back into production with a starter pit, fairly inexpensively, possibly by the end of this year.
