FPX Nickel Files Positive Preliminary Economic Assessment for Baptiste Nickel Project
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FPX Nickel Files Positive Preliminary Economic Assessment for
Baptiste Nickel Project
Vancouver, September 30, 2020 – FPX Nickel Corp. (FPX-TSX.V) (“FPX Nickel” or the “Company”)
announces that further to its news release dated September 9, 2020, it has filed the associated National
Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”) technical report (the
“Report”) for the Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) for the Baptiste Project (“Baptiste” or the
“Project”) at its wholly-owned Decar Nickel District in central British Columbia. The Report is dated
September 29, 2020 and can be found under the Company’s profile at www.sedar.com. The PEA was
prepared by BBA Inc. of Montreal, Canada with work on mine planning and tailings by Stantec Inc. of
Vancouver, Canada.
The Baptiste PEA demonstrates the potential for establishing a greenfield open-pit mine and an on-site
magnetic separation and flotation processing plant, using conventional technology and equipment. At a
throughput rate of 120,000 tonnes per day (or 43.8 million tonnes per year), annual production is
projected to average 99 million pounds nickel contained in ferronickel briquettes at C1 operating costs of
US$2.74 per pound of nickel. A summary of the PEA highlights is provided in Table 1.
Table 1 – Baptiste Project PEA Results and Assumptions (all in US$)
Results
Pre-tax NPV (8% discount rate) $2.93 billion
Pre-tax IRR 22.5%
Payback period (pre-tax) 3.5 years
After-tax NPV (8% discount rate) $1.72 billion
After-tax IRR 18.3%
Payback period (after-tax) 4.0 years
Net cash flows (after-tax, undiscounted) $8.73 billion
C1 operating costs 1 $2.74/lb nickel
AISC costs 2 $3.12/lb nickel
Assumptions
Processing throughput 120,000 tonnes per day
Mine life 35 years
Life-of-mine stripping ratio (tonnes:tonnes) 0.40:1
Life-of-mine average annual nickel production 99 million lbs.
Nickel price 3 $7.75/lb
Baptiste product payability (% of nickel price) 98%
Pre-production capital expenditures $1.67 billion
Sustaining capital expenditures $1.11 billion
Exchange rate 0.76 US$/C$
1. C1 operating costs are the costs of mining, milling and concentrating, on-site administration and
general expenses, metal product treatment charges, and freight and marketing costs less the net
value of by-product credits, if any. These are expressed on the basis of per unit nickel content of
the sold product.
2. AISC of all-in sustaining costs comprise the sum of C1 costs, sustaining capital, royalties and
closure expenses. These are expressed on the basis of per unit nickel content of the sold product.
3. Nickel price is based on the average of six long-term analyst forecast prices.
The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too
speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to
be categorized as mineral reserves. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have
demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that the conclusions or results as reported in the
PEA will be realized.
The PEA was produced by a team of independent consultants who possess extensive expertise in their
respective fields. Further details on the contributors can be found in the Qualified Persons section of the
Company’s news release dated September 9, 2020.
About the Decar Nickel District
The Company’s Decar Nickel District claims cover 245 square kilometres of the Mount Sidney Williams
ultramafic/ophiolite complex, 90 km northwest of Fort St. James in central British Columbia. The District
is a two-hour drive from Fort St. James on a high-speed logging road.
Decar hosts a greenfield discovery of nickel mineralization in the form of a naturally occurring nickel-
iron alloy called awaruite, which is amenable to bulk-tonnage, open-pit mining. Awaruite mineralization
has been identified in four target areas within this ophiolite complex, being the Baptiste Deposit, the B
target, the Sid target and Van target, as confirmed by drilling in the first three plus petrographic
examination, electron probe analyses and outcrop sampling on all four. Since 2010, approximately $25
million has been spent on the exploration and development of Decar.
Of the four targets in the Decar Nickel District, the Baptiste Deposit has been the main focus of diamond
drilling since 2010, with a total of 82 holes and over 31,000 metres of drilling completed. The Sid target
was tested with two holes in 2010 and the B target had a single hole drilled into it in 2011; all three holes
intersected nickel-iron alloy mineralization over wide intervals with DTR nickel grades comparable to the
Baptiste Deposit. The Van target was not drill-tested at that time as rock exposure was very poor prior to
logging activity by forestry companies.
As reported in the current NI 43-101 resource estimate, having an effective date of September 9, 2020, the
Baptiste Deposit contains 1.996 billion tonnes of indicated resources at an average grade of 0.122% DTR
nickel, thus equating to 2.4 million tonnes of nickel, and 593 million tonnes of inferred resources with an
average grade of 0.114% DTR nickel, containing 0.7 million tonnes of nickel, reported at a cut-off grade
of 0.06% DTR nickel. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated
economic viability.
About FPX Nickel Corp.
FPX Nickel Corp. is focused on the exploration and development of the Decar Nickel District, located in
central British Columbia, and other occurrences of the same unique style of naturally occurring nickel-
iron alloy mineralization known as awaruite. For more information, please view the Company’s website
at www.fpxnickel.com or contact Martin Turenne, President and CEO, at (604) 681-8600 or at
On behalf of FPX Nickel Corp.
"Martin Turenne"
Martin Turenne, President, CEO and Director
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is considered “forward-looking
information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. These statements address future
events and conditions and so involve inherent risks and uncertainties, as disclosed in the Company's
periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. Actual results could differ from those currently
projected. The Company does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the
adequacy or accuracy of this release.