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The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Historical dataset will assist exploration of Skolai nickel project North of 60 Mining News - November 28, 2023
KoBold Metals' Skolai project covers a large area north of Alaska Energy Metals' Nikolia project that is prospective for nickel, as well as cobalt, copper, and platinum group metals.
Map of Alaska Energy Metals' Nikolai project (outlined in red), KoBold Metals' Skolai project (outlined in purple), and Resolution Minerals' Allegra project (outlined in green).
Alaska Energy Metals Corp. Nov. 28 announced that it has sold nickel exploration data to KoBold Metals, a high-tech mineral exploration company backed by funding from Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and others that leverages the power of AI and machine learning to accelerate the exploration of metals needed for the energy transition.
In Alaska, KoBold is exploring for nickel, cobalt, and associated metals at the district-scale Skolai project adjacent to Alaska Energy's Nikolai project in the Wrangellia Terrane.
Earlier this year, Alaska Energy invested C$2 million (US$1.5 million) to acquire a comprehensive and well-curated dataset from roughly $30 million of historical exploration carried out in the area of the Skolai and Nikolai projects.
Based solely on this data, an inferred resource encompassing 1.55 billion pounds of nickel was calculated for a section of the Eureka Zone at Nikolai.
Having already received a large return on its investment, Alaska Energy has agreed to sell KoBold data related to its Skolai project for US$175,000 (C$237,450).
"We are pleased to recover some of our costs from the large exploration dataset we bought earlier this year. KoBold owns claims that neighbor our Nikolai nickel project and I am confident they will put the data to good use," said Alaska Energy Metals President and CEO Gregory Beischer. "(I)t should accelerate their exploration efforts."
The dataset purchased by KoBold includes assay results from more than 1,000 rock, 2,300 soil, and 250 stream sediment samples; assay results and core logs from 13 holes drilled; airborne electromagnetic geophysical survey data; and geological maps.
To replicate the purchased exploration data would require a fairly extensive multi-million-dollar summer field program.
In addition to the data collected with the sampling, mapping, and geophysical program carried out by KoBold this summer, the purchased dataset will provide the innovative global exploration company with additional inputs for its AI and machine learning tools to discover new ethical sources of nickel, cobalt, copper, and potentially other metals critical to the energy transition.
"We appreciate completing this data purchase with Alaska Energy Metals Corporation to further work on our Skolai nickel project," said KoBold Metals Chief Strategy Officer Daniel Enderton.
In addition to being a good neighbor and leveraging value from its data, Alaska Energy stands to benefit from the emergence of a nickel camp being co-advanced alongside a company with the backing and clout of KoBold.
"We wish KoBold success in their search for magmatic nickel-copper sulfide deposits on their claims," said Beischer. "Any discovery success in this emerging nickel district will benefit Alaska Energy Metals and Alaska generally."
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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