Saskatchewan Nickel Explorers Take Center Stage
Fathom Nickel has had some powerful assays get pulled out of its sister projects with more to come. Meanwhile, its southern neighbour Ramp Metals is looking to IPO soon chasing its own anomaly.
tl;dr:
I like Saskatchewan nickel explorers and highlight a couple I am going to cover in-depth soon enough. Fathom Nickel (FNI.CN) and Ramp Metals (pre-IPO).
A quick update for you. First off, I am delaying the iTech update till next week. MD Michael Schwarz is currently on family holidays and I told him the mini Q and A could wait till he returned.
In a similar vein, my articles on Giga and TAG are also delayed. They’re both done but are presently being factchecked by their respective companies. So their publication date is unknown but presumably imminent. I will get them out as I can.
The DevCo Comparison I am still optimistic I can get out in time for Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, but my travel time might yet impact that.
However, things are hardly standing still. Lots of projects are coming to fruition over the next while, and next week promises to be action-packed for me. More on that later.
To spell off the gap while I wait for fact checking to be complete, I thought I would give a quick update on companies I have been chatting with and want to introduce. These two actually complement each other nicely and make a lot of sense to introduce together. They’re both after nickel, both located in Saskatchewan, and, even more, are neighbours.
Note that proper introductions are coming soon, but for now, I just wanted to get them on your radar.
Fathom Nickel and Ramp Metals
1. Fathom Nickel (FNI.CN)
This is one I’ve been following for a while and if you’re in the industry you maybe already know them. They’re absolutely one of my favourites. Why? Well, first of all, I fundamentally believe that Saskatchewan is criminally underexplored for any mineral that isn’t radioactive. Fathom has two projects within a couple dozen kilometers of each other, including the old high-grade Rottenstone Mine (its Albert Lake project) and the Gochager Lake project a little to the south.
It is impossible to get CEO Ian Fraser and President Doug Porter to pick a favourite between these two projects. They are insistent that both these projects are worthy of flagship status. FNI’s online following is similarly split. And it might be for good reason, take a look at the investor presentation slides below. As they show, the exploration potential for both these projects is immense.
Like I say, I am going to be brief (for once) and let the slides do the talking. But Fathom checks a lot of boxes for me. I will just say I am very much looking forward to covering their story along the way. Core is in the lab and a winter drill campaign means we can expect a steady flow of news from Fathom over the next few months.
Overview Slide
Albert Lake Project
Gochager Lake Project
Just look at those results! Look at those and tell me you don’t want to see what else is down there.
2. Ramp Metals (pre-IPO)
Fathom’s success has lead to increased interest in the region. Enter Ramp Metals. A couple of hungry young guns - CEO Jordan Black and lead geologist Garrett Smith - are just a couple months away from going public with a couple of Saskatchewan Ni projects and the drill turning not long after.
Their projects are as greenfield as they get (and I like their drive to find truly new discoveries). For instance, their Rottenstone SW (the southern tip of Fathom’s Rottenstone land package) has never been drilled. It hadn’t even had any above ground exploration done to it since the 1960s until some EM mapping work was finally completed in 2023.
It’s obviously a high-risk, high-reward play. But there’s reasons to be legitimately excited for it. For one, the geological signatures are compelling as heck, bearing all the signatures of a nickel deposit. As the technical report for the Rottenstone SW property writes:
Elsewhere in the Rottenstone Domain the ultramafic intrusives which host Ni-Cu-PGE showings are often located in the hinge zones of northeast- southwest trending folds, which makes the EM anomaly in the central portion of the claims particularly attractive target for additional exploration. More advanced interpretations and modelling of the anomalies is recommended prior to ground follow-up or drilling.
The core thesis of Ramp is that within the “eye” (which looks a heck of a lot like Nova-Bollinger’s signature - check the images below) there are some juicy drill targets to be had, as the above quote suggests. The Nova-Bollinger connections are not frivolous. Rather, Dr. Mark Bennett - the guy that discovered Nova-Bollinger and eventually sold it for over CAD $1.5B has signed on officially as a strategic advisor to Ramp.
So Ramp has got a project with real potential and are raising a chunk of cash (successfully so far - which maybe hints that the market respects what they have even in these brutal macro conditions) to drill that potential out. If you like getting in on the ground floor then Ramp could be a good play for you. Contact information below if you’re looking for financing info, otherwise you’ll have to wait till this goes public probably before EOY to buy in. But I will call it quites here and circle back properly in due time.
Like I say, short but sweet! I want to give each of these companies their proper attention in due time. But in the mean time - if you like nickel then circle these names.
Thanks,
JRI