Maskwa

The 2,159 ha Maskwa nickel-copper-platinum group metals project is located near Lac du Bonnet Manitoba, Canada. The property includes two past producing nickel mines and a number of mineralized zones.

Wardrop Engineering Inc. estimated a Proven and Probable open pit reserve totaling 7.11 million tonnes grading 0.64% nickel, 0.13% copper, 0.01% cobalt, 0.10 g/t platinum and 0.37 g/t palladium. The reserve is based on a diluted nickel cut-off of 0.2% nickel.

A two phase open pit design was taken into account. Total waste tonnes in phase 1 were 15.54 million tonnes for a strip ratio of 5.5:1. The strip ratio for phase 1 and 2 combined is 10.8:1. It is designed as a regular truck and shovel operation employing a 12m3 front end loader, a backhoe excavators, and a fleet of five 90 to 100 tonnes trucks (CAT 777).

Processing of the ore is to be by standard grinding and flotation techniques. Equipment intended to be used include a jaw crushing station (truck dump hopper, rock breaker and feeder); a secondary crushing plant comprising two cone crushers (standard and shorthead); a grinding section (rod and ball mills); a flotation section (rougher and scavenger flotation cells, a regrind ball mill, and cleaner flotation cells); concentrate dewatering section (thickener, pressure plate filter).

The proposed project is a 2,750 tonnes per day open pit mine and milling operation producing an average of 9.2 million pounds of nickel per year in concentrate and other credits including platinum group metals, copper and cobalt.

Power will be accessed from the Manitoba Hydro grid.

The economic analysis uses the assumption of a US$ 10 per pound nickel price in the first 2 years (based on the assumption that the first two years' production could be hedged) reverting to a long term metal price of $8 per pound.

Initial capital cost (but not including sustaining capital) for the project including contingency is estimated to be $123 million. Major cost components include plant and infrastructure at $65.6 million; mining equipment at $29.4 million; EPCM and owners costs of $13.2 million; tailings and water management of $4 million and contingency of $10.6 million.