Alaska Energy Metals Corp. has announced an updated independent mineral resource estimate prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for its 100 percent owned Eureka Deposit, Nikolai Nickel Project in Alaska, USA, with an effective date of Feb. 12, 2023.

The newly-published 2024 MRE contains an addition of 813 million tonnes of indicated resource, 896 million tonnes of inferred resource (an increase of 180 percent), and a strip ratio decrease, when compared with the maiden resource published in 2023 (see press release dated November 20, 2023). The study was completed by Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., and includes 35 historical drill holes, the data for which the company purchased in August 2023, and eight diamond drill holes (totaling 4,138 meters) drilled by the company on the project in 2023.

Alaska Energy Metals President and chief executive officer Gregory Beischer said, “In less than a year, we have taken an exploration concept to a substantial deposit of nickel and other critical metals. The mineral resource estimate update has produced a 180 percent increase in the inferred tonnage, and added substantial, new indicated tonnage to the deposit. The update increases the nickel metal content of the deposit to over 8 billion pounds (more than 3.7 million metric tonnes) with only a 0.01 percent grade decrease and a notably lower strip ratio. With this updated mineral resource estimate, the Eureka deposit of the Nikolai Nickel project represents a globally significant accumulation of nickel and has now become one of the large known nickel deposits in the United States. Nikolai could potentially become an important source of nickel for the USA, catering to the needs of various manufacturing sectors including stainless steel, electric vehicles, defense components, long-term, grid-scale renewable energy storage batteries and a myriad of other uses. This significant achievement speaks volumes to the hard work our team has put into the project over the past year. I am particularly encouraged by the delineation of a higher-grade core zone. The presence of this core zone could dramatically affect project economics in a positive way.”

The Eureka West and Eureka East deposits reported in the maiden 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) are now connected as one deposit measuring 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) in length.

Relative to the maiden MRE:

A significant portion of the deposit was upgraded from inferred to indicated MRE. Previously there was 0 tonnes of indicated resource. There has been an addition of 813 million tonnes of indicated resource to the MRE.

The grade of the indicated resource is 0.29 percent nickel equivalent.

The inferred resource has increased from 319.6 million tonnes to 896 million tonnes, a 180 percent increase. The grade of the inferred resource is 0.27 percent NiEq.

There has been an addition of 3.877 billion pounds (1.758 million tonnes) of contained nickel to the indicated resource.

There has been an increase in inferred resource contained nickel metal from 1.552 billion pounds (703,975 tonnes) to 4.225 billion pounds (1.916 million tonnes), a 172 percent increase.

As a consequence of joining the two deposits together, the strip ratio has been reduced from 3.7:1 to 1.5:1. Three parallel zones of mineralization are now identified (EZ1, EZ2, and EZ3).

A higher-grade core zone has been identified within EZ2 and it shows continuity along much of the strike of the deposit. The higher-grade core contains an indicated resource of 211 million tonnes at a grade of 0.34 percent NiEq and an Inferred resource of 154 million tonnes at a grade of 0.33 percent NiEq.
 

Photo courtesy of Alaska Energy