Dear Shareholders
Heading into 2022 the momentum behind the energy transition away from fossil fuels continues to grow. This is evident in the higher prices of key commodities such as nickel copper cobalt and lithium, all metals which Grid is actively exploring for. We are looking to accelerate the momentum with which we are exploring and developing our projects in 2022. With that said we are also aware that we must benchmark the progress of our projects to ensure that they are relevant in todays mining industry in terms of grade, scale and prospectivity.
In 2021 we completed our current drilling efforts at two projects, East Bull Lake for palladium and Bannockburn for nickel and we readied our Bird River Projects for the commencement of drilling there. At East Bull Lake we generated some meaningful drill intercepts with both wide open pit widths and narrower but very high grade underground grade intersections. East Bull has many highly prospective target areas yet to be drill tested.
At Bannockburn Nickel Project we are looking for large tonnages of sulphide nickel capable of producing a high grade nickel concentrate. We will carefully benchmark the drill results when these results are received to other bulk tonnage nickel projects around the world. The key to Bannockburn will be achieving sufficient grade and recovery in our drilling and the potential for the property to produce a high grade nickel concentrate.
Our initial exploration efforts in 2022 will focus on our Bird River properties which include base metals, platinum group metals and lithium. We expect to commence drilling early in 2022. The first priority on the Makwa Mayville Project ( Ni-Cu-PGM-Co) is to test some of the best exploration targets that have the potential to add quality resources to the project. Some additional good grade resource is important to improving the metrics of this project which we have high expectations for.
Canada’s only producing lithium mine is located at the Tanco operation which is next to our landholdings at Bird River. We believe the potential for hard rock lithium at our Mayville Property is excellent. Not just the known lithium bearing pegmatite dykes on our property (the Main Dyke has demonstrated very good grade ) but for other undiscovered dykes which occur in the area. We have a large amount of geological and exploration data from the historical work in the area which is encouraging. However, for various reasons there is very little drilling that has occurred in the past 50 years. This presents an opportunity for us particularly with our plan to fund the lithium project through a sale of royalty and project interest. The Bird River area is an excellent location for exploration with generally low costs and great access and infrastructure.
We are pleased to note that as a Company we have reached agreements with the affected First Nations in the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario where we operate. In Canada this is a very important factor for project development. Both of those provinces have significant sources of renewable energy available for project development. So our projects have the potential to be top tier in regards to ESG standards.
The onus is on our team to come up with some excellent results from our exploration and development programs and translate that into increased shareholder value. We have a small but dedicated group working hard to make this happen. We thank our shareholders for their continued support.
Robin Dunbar
