Nordic Nickel to receive $500,000 from BHP for its Q1 2023 drill run

Nordic Nickel (ASX:NNL) has been selected by Australian iron ore giant BHP (ASX:BHP) as a participant in the latter’s first-ever ‘Xplor’ funding round. 

BHP will hand Nordic $500,000 ($0.5m) to support its ongoing drill program currently underway in Northern Finland at the company’s flagship Pulju Nickel Project. 

The funds will be used specifically to cover Nordic’s capex of drilling further down than previously anticipated at its flagship prospect on-site to test electromagnetic (EM) anomalies at depth. 

The exploration team is seeking to uncover “Sakatti-style” nickel sulphide mineralisation, referencing the London Stock Exchange (LSE) listed Anglo American's (LSE:AAL) discovery in Northern Finland in 2009. 

For an overview on nickel sulphides, check out Market Index’s explainer here. 

Hotinvaara Prospect on the radar 

In July last year, Nordic released a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for one prospect within the Pulju project, the Hotinvaara target, which boasts a resource of 278,500 tonnes of nickel. 

“The combination of historical drilling data and drill core Nordic has been able to secure, together with modern geophysical exploration…has put us in an enviable position from a nickel exploration perspective,” Nordic Nickel MD Todd Ross said. 

“We are excited to have been selected to participate in the BHP’s Xplor cohort for 2023.” 

Ross put it to the market BHP’s decision to fund current drilling validates the economic potential at Pulju. 

What is Xplor? 

On its website, BHP describes the Xplor program as an accelerator initiative for a cohort of small-cap companies advancing early-stage mineral exploration projects. 

A range of smallcap companies applied for the funding, with Nordic Nickel being one of the first successful recipients to publish news on the partnership on Tuesday. 

“We are amazed by the diversity and quality of the submissions we reviewed and selected,” BHP Xplor Program VP Sonia Scarselli said. 

Want to know more? 

A number of initial considerations can be ascertained about the performance of Nordic Nickel by using Market Index’s free company data. Among those considerations are the following: 

• Company’s share price is 29c*

• Shares are up 7.4% in mid-afternoon trade*

• Market cap of $16.9m* 

• One year returns up 16% 

• Year to date performance up 45% 

• Average 4 week trading volume of 38,541 shares 

• Ranked 584 of 942 constituents in the Materials sector 

• Ended the September quarter with $10m in cash 

• The company spent $193,000 over the same period in opex

*As at 1415 AEST Tuesday 17 January 2023 

A look at NNL's charts ever since it listed on the ASX in June 2022