Mink Ventures Corporation is a Canadian mineral exploration company exploring for battery metals such as nickel, copper, and cobalt in the Timmins Nickel District, Ontario, Canada.
Mink was created to capitalise on Canadian battery metals opportunities as they arose. The team behind it has extensive experience in the mineral exploration business and deep roots and relationships in capital markets.
The company began as a capital pool company (CPC) on the TSX Venture Exchange in September 2021, completed its qualifying transaction (QT) in December 2022 with the acquisition of its Montcalm Ni-Cu-Co project, and began trading under the symbol MINK in January 2023.
Essential Canadian battery metals strategically located in Ontario
Nickel, copper, and cobalt are battery metals central to the green energy transition. Each of Mink’s projects are multi-element, with each of these commodities.
MINK’s projects are ideally situated with low geopolitical risk factors. Ontario is a top-ranked Canadian battery metals jurisdiction. The province is mineral-rich, with a wide range of deposits that significantly contribute to the economy and the local communities.
Additionally, Mink is operating in a part of Northern Ontario where there is a clear and articulate process to build solid relationships and work with local communities and First Nations.
Exploration companies play a vital role in discovering the mineral deposits needed to establish a resilient source of Canadian battery metals. Mink is well positioned to play a role with its prospective Ni-Cu-Co assets in its Montcalm and Warren projects.
The Montcalm project
Mink’s Montcalm project is located 65 km northwest of Timmins, Ontario and is adjacent to Glencore’s Montcalm Mine, with historical production of approximately 3.93 million tonnes of 1.25% Ni, 0.67% Cu and 0.051% Co.
Mink’s project covers 40 km2 of the Montcalm gabbro complex. The gabbro phase, which hosts the mine, covers approximately 15 km2, about 10 km2 of this within Mink’s land holdings and the other 5 km2 on Glencore’s property.
The historical exploration and drill density (48 holes over 40km2) on Mink’s sizeable project, adjacent to a high-grade nickel sulphide mine, has been a sporadic effort at best. Fortunately, the odds of finding new battery metal deposits have significantly improved with new technology in the toolkit.
The deepest known nickel-copper-cobalt lenses at the Montcalm Mine are known to extend from approximately 250-400m vertical depth, which is well beyond the capability of many older surface electromagnetic (EM) systems. Most Canadian battery metal mines now extend to several thousand vertical feet in depth, so the new geophysical technology opens up the next layer of the cake.
In Mink’s recent exploration programme at Montcalm, the company vetted the capability of these new geophysical technologies and demonstrated that both 3D borehole IP and surface IP surveys are cost-effective target development tools. The company also discovered several previously undetected, high-priority drill targets, which may represent potential new zones of base metal mineralisation. The company is drill testing one of these newly discovered targets currently.
The Warren project
In addition to MINK’s flagship Montcalm project, the company added a second polymetallic Canadian battery metals project to its portfolio in July 2023.
Mink has the option to earn a 100% interest, subject to a 1.5% NSR, in the Warren copper-nickel project. It is located in Whitesides Township, 35 km west of Timmins and down the same road from the Montcalm project. In Q3, 2023, the company staked additional claims to the east, acquired claims to the north as well purchased 0.5%NSR of the 1.5%NSR on the 14 patented claims. There are no NSRs on the newly staked or acquired claims. The Warren project now covers 1,010 hectares.
More recent geophysical surveys suggest that three established zones with projected strike lengths of 800-1,000m are open along strike and at depth and remain almost entirely untested for battery metals. The deepest historical drill holes only tested to approximately 60m vertical depth.
This strategic acquisition expands Mink’s exploration portfolio and discovery opportunity with a very complementary, second gabbro-hosted copper-nickel-sulphide project, which shares a similar geological environment with its flagship Montcalm project. The company plans to drill the Warren project this winter.
