NickelX appoints uranium specialist as managing director, signals shift in focus
NickelX (ASX: NKL) has appointed well-known uranium and capital markets specialist Peter Woods as managing director to complement the company’s recent addition of a significant Canadian uranium asset.
Mr Woods will initially undertake a strategic review of the company’s current uranium and gold exploration projects and assess other potential opportunities.
He brings significant resources and ASX board-level experience across various industries and geographies to his new role, including successfully managing and raising capital for a recently-listed North American uranium-focused exploration company that he founded.
A Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Mr Woods has held various board positions including directorships for Matador Mining (ASX: MZZ), Bunji Corporation and TNT Mines.
He is currently on the board of Corella Resources (ASX: CR9) and Uvre (ASX: UVA).
Transition underway
NickelX chair Jonathan Downes said Mr Woods’ appointment would help advance the company’s uranium and gold portfolio.
“With a tight capital structure of only around 88 million shares on issue, NickelX represents a leveraged opportunity to add shareholder value as the projects deliver exploration results and the company assesses other potential strategic opportunities with the aim of creating shareholder value,” Mr Downes said.
“This appointment represents a transition away from nickel exploration and towards the unrealised potential of the Elliot Lake uranium project.”
Elliot Lake ambitions
NickelX added Elliot Lake to its portfolio earlier this year and has already identified the potential for the project to host uranium mineralisation in large-scale formations.
The project is situated along strike from the well-known Elliot Lake uranium district, which historically produced 362 million pounds of uranium oxide from 13 underground mines within an area of just 15 km by 15 km.
It also sits adjacent to the world’s largest commercial uranium refinery, Cameco’s Blind River.
A first pass geological review has already identified three priority target areas, two of which have known mineralisation, over a combined 35km strike of prospective tenure.
Planned field work
The company is now preparing to commence field work, including verification of uranium occurrence and drill hole locations, mapping, sampling and siting for a potential drill campaign targeting the northern hemisphere summer.
NickelX is targeting conglomerate-hosted uranium along the under-explored interpreted extensions to the historic mining centre at Elliot Lake.
The company’s highest priority target is the Crazy Lake-Gods Lake trend that sits around 14km to the east and along strike from the large historic Quirke No 1 mine that exploited uranium-bearing conglomerate reefs of around 13 km in length and up to 5.5km in width.
The exploration team is currently completing a geophysical data review designed to further constrain target sites and generate additional targets.