The well-known mining company Alaska Energy Metals has announced an important expansion into Canada: it has bought a 100% stake in the Bambino property in Québec. By taking this action, it deliberately expands its exploratory footprint in an area that is becoming more and more known for its potential in transition metals for green energy.
Situated in western Quebec’s Témiscaming area, the 3,320-hectare Bambino property comprises 57 claims. It is positioned to take advantage of synergies between the two sites because it is next to Alaska Energy Metals’ fully owned Angliers-Belleterre property. The acquisition is a significant step forward for the company as it works to strengthen its position as a supplier of vital metals for the long-term energy storage and lithium-ion battery markets that are rapidly expanding in North America.
CEO Greg Beischer, who took the helm of Alaska Energy Metals in spring 2023 after a notable tenure at Millrock Resources, is steering the company with a vision to expand its mineral resource base. Under his leadership, the company has already upgraded its Nikolai project in Alaska, where recent evaluations increased the known nickel resources to a staggering 8 billion pounds.
Beischer’s decision to purchase the Bambino property was motivated by the land’s topographical resemblance to the Nikolai project, which he had experience with in his early career as an exploratory geologist with Inco in the 1990s. Beischer clarified, “We found it based on a conceptual aim back then, but it was not rich enough for Inco in the 90s.” However, he thinks that because of changing market demands and extraction technology, these deposits might now make up economically viable ore bodies.
The Bambino acquisition aims to access the next generation of mineral reserves that are crucial for contemporary technologies, not merely to increase physical territory. Beischer emphasized how the business has changed from enormous, high-grade sulphide nickel resources to bulk quantity of dispersed nickel deposits, which is comparable to the historical shift in copper mining.
Beischer said, “In response to the tremendous demand, the industry is adapting by using economies of scale to mine these huge volumes of lower-grade material, which was a new strategy in copper mining half a century ago.” This process currently controls the majority of copper extraction worldwide, and it is predicted to grow more and more common in nickel mining.
The timing of this expansion is crucial since supply chain interruptions and geopolitical tensions are two factors that are putting pressure on the world’s nickel supply. Beischer is not bothered by the recent decline in nickel prices, which is attributed to an increase in output in Indonesia. About the strong demand projections for nickel, which is essential for batteries for electric vehicles and other green technology, he is still optimistic.
Beischer, however, expressed dissatisfaction with American bureaucratic obstacles and compared them to Canada’s more efficient permitting procedures. “It takes around two years to secure a permit for mine development in Canada, while it takes seven years in the United States,” he said, drawing attention to the political influence and inefficiencies that beset the American permitting system. Industry heavyweights like Beischer find this discrepancy especially irritating, as they believe there is an urgent need to match federal funding for electrification with the development of mineral resources.
Beischer also attacked the U.S. permitting procedure for having unclear deadlines and poor response times, which he said might potentially impede the nation’s shift to a more electrified culture. “The permitting procedure has such a strong political element. Politics has a significant impact on the engineering and science of it, which I think is wrong,” he remarked.
