Canada Nickel secures US$32 million bridge loan

Canada Nickel Company Inc. [CNC-TSXV] has entered into a US$32 million bridge loan facility with Auramet International Inc., which is expected to close on or before February 9, 2026. Proceeds from the facility provide additional funding to advance the company’s flagship Crawford Nickel Sulphide Project near Timmins, Ont., and to repay the existing loan with Ber Tov Capital Corp., signed on May 9, 2025.

Privately owned Auramet is one of the world’s leading precious metals merchants. The company also provides project financing and other services.

“We are pleased to have the continued support of Auramet, our long-standing financing partner, through this US$32 million bridge facility,’’ said Canada Nickel CEO Mark Selby. “This funding ensures we remain well capitalized to advance the Crawford Nickel Project towards construction by year-end 2026 as we complete funding discussions with government and project partners.’’

The bridge loan facility will be due May 9, 2026, will carry an interest rate of 1.0% per month, and be subject to a 2.5% arrangement fee. At closing Auramet will also receive 1.75 million one-year warrants having an exercise price equal to a 5.0% premium to the five-day volume weighted average price of the common shares on the TSE Venture Exchange for five consecutive trading days ending on the trading day immediately prior to the closing date.

On Friday, Canada Nickel shares rose 0.54% or $0.01 to $1.85. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $2.59 and 73.5 cents.

Canada Nickel has said a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) has confirmed robust economics for its 100%-owned Crawford project. Canada Nickel recently said it had entered into a non-binding MOU with Glencore Canada Corp. to examine the potential use of Glencore’s Kidd concentrator and metallurgical site in Timmins for the treatment and processing of material mined from the Crawford project.

Crawford is located 40 kilometres north of Glencore’s operations.

Canada Nickel said the PEA demonstrates the potential to develop a phased conventional nickel sulphide concentrator, producing nickel concentrates and magnetite concentrates. The operation is designed to have an open pit mine with a plant potential of 120,000 tonnes per day.

Canada Nickel was in the news recently when the company released drill results from a regional exploration program on properties in the Timmins, Ont., region. “Our regional exploration program intended to highlight the potential for multiple Crawford-sized discoveries has taken several big steps forward,’’ said Selby. Results released by the company were from the Reid, Nesbitt and Deloro properties, which are all located less than 20 kilometres from the Crawford project.

At Nesbitt, for example, drill hole NES21-09 intersected 415.3 (core length) metres of grade 0.26% nickel, including a higher-grade zone of 25.5 metres (core length), grading 0.31% nickel. The company said the same hole intersected a thick interval of peridotite grading to dunite from 41.7 to 459.0 metres, ending in peridotite.