NexMetals Mining Corp.'s Selebi Main inferred resource rises 72% to 32.47Mt

NexMetals Mining Corp. CVENEXM NASDAQNEXM reported on Thursday an inferred resource of 32.47 million tonnes grading 1.53 per cent copper and 0.98 per cent nickel at its Selebi Main deposit in Botswana. The estimate is 72 per cent above the 18.89 million tonnes reported for Selebi Main in 2024, enlarging the inferred inventory before a separate Selebi North update.

Shares on the CVENEXM listing rose 5.36 per cent to C$2.75 on the TSX Venture Exchange at 4 p.m. EDT on Oct. 1.

Contained copper increased 55 per cent to 495,400 tonnes, the company's Oct. 1 release said. Contained nickel rose 91 per cent to 316,800 tonnes. The calculation covers Selebi Main alone; NexMetals said a separate resource estimate for Selebi North is still being prepared, with no release date given.

The Selebi Main estimate has an effective date of Sept. 28 and is entirely inferred. The resource table says there are no mineral reserves and the material has no demonstrated economic viability; a supporting technical report is due within 45 days of the Oct. 1 announcement.

Copper grade fell to 1.53 per cent from 1.69 per cent in the 2024 estimate. Nickel grade rose to 0.98 per cent from 0.88 per cent. The greater tonnage increased contained copper and nickel despite the lower copper grade.

NexMetals attributed 91 per cent of the tonnage increase to drilling in the Flexure Zone. The estimate uses a Sept. 21 data cut-off, excluding later step-out drilling that the company said intersected massive sulphide mineralization.

The resource is reported above a US$75-per-tonne net smelter return threshold and assumes long-term copper at US$5.10 a pound and nickel at US$9.10 a pound. The estimate also assumes copper recovery of 96.1 per cent and nickel recovery of 55.6 per cent in a two-concentrate scenario.

Cobalt enters the resource for the first time, with 16,200 contained tonnes at an average grade of 0.05 per cent. NexMetals reported 1.77 billion pounds of copper equivalent in the inferred category.

"Given the scale of the increase, we are reporting the Selebi Main Mineral Resource Estimate while MSA completes its work on Selebi North, which is not included in today's figures," NexMetals chief executive Sean Whiteford said in the Oct. 1 release.

The upper zone accounts for 23.52 million tonnes and 377,900 tonnes of contained copper. The lower zone adds 8.95 million tonnes and 117,400 tonnes of copper. Those two inferred zones make up the whole Selebi Main estimate, while the separate Selebi North calculation remains unfinished.

NexMetals expects to file the Selebi Main NI 43-101 technical report within 45 days of its Oct. 1 release.