Magna Mining and Glencore Canada have signed an agreement to treat ore from the Crean Hill nickel-copper surface bulk sample of the 109 footwall at Glencore’s Strathcona mill in Sudbury, Ontario.

“Magna has the advantage of having two permitted projects in the Sudbury region,” said Magna CEO Jason Jessup. “This bulk sample will allow us to evaluate the metallurgical performance and reconcile against our resource estimate, further de-risking our project as we move towards underground advanced exploration at Crean Hill.”

The current agreement with Glencore is for the 109 FW zone surface bulk sample only. The March 2024 agreement with Vale Canada did not include the 109 FW zone.

Magna intends to ship approximately 20,000 tonnes of ore from the near surface portion of the 109 FW zone. The material will be processed separately through the Strathcona mill and produce a bulk concentrate. The results will provide recovery information on base and precious metals, allowing Magna to better plan underground advanced exploration and future commercial production.

Recently, a series of short diamond drill holes were completed in the area of the surface bulk sample, and in May, Magna reported assay results from the first eight holes of this program. The results included hole MCB-24-029 which intersected 2.9% copper, 0.9% nickel and 9.5 g/t platinum-palladium-gold over 6.3 metres starting at surface.

This drilling will be incorporated into the surface bulk sample design, as well as additional drilling for which assays are pending.

Magna plans on awarding the contract for the surface bulk sample work in the coming days and intends to have contractors mobilize to the site in June. It is estimated that the surface work will take four to six weeks and the toll milling will be completed in the third quarter this year.

The high-grade Crean Hill deposit has been mined sporadically between 1906 and 2017. The mine produced over 20 million tonnes of ore during that time. Magna purchased the property in 2022 from Lonmin Mining.