RNC Minerals looks to progress $1 billion nickel-cobalt mine in Quebec

A Canadian mineral resource company, with an expansive base metals and gold producing portfolio, has announced plans for a $1 billion nickel-cobalt project.

RNC Minerals announced that it intends to undertake a series of initiatives during 2018 to fund the construction of the Drumont Nickel-Cobalt Project, one of the world’s largest undeveloped reserves of both cobalt and nickel.

The project, a joint venture between RNC and Waterton Precious Metals Fund, is located in the Abitibi region of Quebec, Canada.

The news comes at a key moment in the nickel and cobalt markets, as the growth of electric vehicle production will see the demand for the two base metals to “explode” over the next decade and beyond.

“The Dumont Nickel-Cobalt Project, one of the world's premier battery metals projects, contains the world's largest undeveloped reserves of both cobalt and nickel, and it also contains the 2nd largest nickel reserve and the 8th largest cobalt reserve of any deposit in the world," said Mark Selby, President and CEO of RNC Minerals.

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Selby continued, "In our view, Dumont compares favourably with many Australian nickel-cobalt projects, which have seen significant increases in market value during 2017. Dumont contains larger nickel and cobalt reserves, has completed a feasibility study, is fully permitted, and is a sulphide deposit rather than a laterite deposit, which allows the recovery of nickel and cobalt using proven, conventional milling technology rather than the more technically challenging pressure acid leach (PAL/HPAL) technology."

The Dumont deposit contains approximately 6.9 billion pounds of nickel in the proven and probable reserve categories and 9.75 billion pounds of nickel resources in the measured and indicated category.

Once in operation, the mine will produce nickel for over 30 years. It is expected to rank as the fifth-largest nickel sulphide operation in the world by annual production – only the mining operations at Norilsk (Russia), Jinchuan (China), Sudbury (Ontario, Canada), Voisey’s Bay (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada) will be larg