Silver Elephant to spin out nickel, vanadium units

Silver Elephant Mining Corp. [ELEF-TSX; SILEF-OTCQX; 1P2N-FSE] is planning to spin out Flying Nickel Mining Corp. and Nevada Vanadium Mining Corp., two Canadian companies wholly owned by Silver Elephant. Doing so will return Silver Elephant to being a dedicated silver investment vehicle.

John Lee, CFA, Chairman, stated, “Silver Elephant is moving toward a pure silver play with proposed spinouts of its non-silver assets. The company will focus on resource expansion and environmental permitting of our flagship Pulacayo silver project in Bolivia. Pulacayo hosts 107 million oz of silver in the indicated category according to Mercator technical report dated October 13, 2020. $35 million has been invested at Pulacayo with over 100,000 meters of drilling.

“Silver Elephant is returning to its silver roots and will be moving away from diluting silver assets with non-silver purchases, as exemplified by other silver explorers and miners such as First Majestic and Fortuna Silver this year.

“Bolivia is opening up to foreign investment, in stark contrast to growing anti-foreign-mining sentiment in Peru. Silver Elephant’s team in Bolivia has been operating peacefully at Pulacayo since 2005 with strong support from the local community. While Silver Elephant is still working out the timing to effect the dual spin outs (which are non-binding at this stage), we feel it’s important to communicate the company’s future direction.”

In the following weeks, the company will provide procedural briefings and updates on its management additions, and banking advisory appointments. Vanadium and nickel prices are trading at or near a multi-year high.

Flying Nickel Mining Corp (FNI)

FNI will own the Minago nickel sulphide project located in the Thompson nickel belt (TNB), the fifth-largest nickel-bearing geological belt in the world. TNB had over 5 billion pounds of nickel production since 1958. Both Manitoba provincial highway 6 and a high-voltage (230 kV) transmission line transect Minago. In 2011, an Environmental Impact Assessment was approved for a 10,000-tonnes-per-day open-pit operation at Minago. FNI is undertaking to renew the EIA in 2021. Over $35 million has been invested at Minago with over 74,000 meters of historic exploration drilling.

Nevada Vanadium Mining Corp (NVV)

NVV will own the Gibellini vanadium project, designed to be an open-pit, heap-leach operation in Nevada. The Gibellini Project development achieved an important milestone in July 2020 when the Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was published in the Federal Register. A final Record of Decision on EIS is expected in 2021. Over $35 million has been invested at Gibellini.