Mr. Stuart Harshaw reports

NICKEL CREEK PLATINUM ANNOUNCES POSITIVE PFS FOR ITS NICKEL SHAW PROJECT

Nickel Creek Platinum Corp. has released the results of a positive prefeasibility study (PFS) at its 100-per-cent-owned Nickel Shaw project located in the Yukon, Canada. The PFS has been prepared by AGP Consultants Inc. The estimated project after-tax net present value (NPV) at a 5-per-cent discount rate is $143-million with an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 5.8 per cent.

Stuart Harshaw, president and chief executive officer of Nickel Creek, commented: "The PFS is an important milestone in realizing the opportunity the Nickel Shaw project represents in the critical mineral space where it can provide nickel and copper to take advantage of the strong nickel market for EV batteries. The sensitivity to energy costs illustrates how working with the different levels of government can lead to a significant improvement in value, especially when combined with the previously announced intention of the federal government to provide a tax incentive for critical mineral projects such as Nickel Shaw. Moving forward, our focus will be to continue to add value to the project through work on identified key economic areas of opportunity and continued mineral exploration success while advancing towards a feasibility study."

Project PFS highlights

• A $143-million after-tax NPV using a 5-per-cent discount rate and an IRR of 5.8 per cent at the following commodity prices: nickel -- $11.00 (U.S.)/pound (lb); copper -- $4.00 (U.S.)/lb; palladium -- $2,100 (U.S.)/troy ounce (troy oz); platinum -- $1,000 (U.S.)/troy oz; cobalt -- $23 (U.S.)/lb; and gold -- $1,800 (U.S.)/troy oz, each using a 0.75 Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate.
• Life of mine (LOM) after-tax cash flow of approximately $1.7-billion with an after-tax payback period of 12.7 years.
• Preproduction capital cost of approximately $1.7-billion, with a construction period of 3.0 years.

Project opportunities

• If paying Yukon grid rates of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour, the after-tax NPV at a 5-per-cent discount rate increases by $324-million to $467-million (see NPV sensitivities section herein for additional information).
• The company's after-tax NPV at a 5-per-cent discount rate increases from $143-million to $336-million if the Canadian tax incentive for critical mineral companies is enacted.
• The company plans to further investigate the opportunity of carbon tax offsets associated with carbon sequestration in the tailings facility with continuing testwork and analysis.

Mineral resource

On June 1, 2023, the company announced an updated mineral resource estimate with an effective date of April 3, 2023.

Project description

The company's flagship asset is its 100-per-cent-owned Nickel Shaw Ni-Cu-Co-PGM project, located in southwestern Yukon, Canada. The Nickel Shaw project contains the company's core Ni-Cu-Co-PGM Wellgreen deposit, as well as the Arch, Burwash, Formula, Musk and Quill claims. The Wellgreen deposit is a polymetallic deposit with mineralization that includes the significant co-occurrence of nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum group metals (PGMs) and gold.

The Nickel Shaw property contains an extensive Ni-Cu-Co-PGM mineralized system hosted by mafic/ultramafic intrusions related to Triassic-age flood basalts. With over 2.4 billion pounds of nickel, 1.2 billion pounds of copper, 6.9 million ounces of PGMs and 137 million pounds of cobalt in the measured and indicated mineral resource categories, Nickel Shaw is one of the largest undeveloped nickel projects in North America not controlled by a major mining company.

The PFS contemplates that the Nickel Shaw open pit would be mined using conventional open pit methods, with a LOM of over 19 years. From the open pit the ore would be trucked to a primary crusher located adjacent to the pit and conveyed out of the valley to a concentrator designed to process 45,000 tonnes per day (tpd) of ore. The ore would be fed into a conventional Ni-Cu-PGM flotation concentrator designed to produce a bulk Ni-Cu-PGM concentrate "Bulk conc" or alternatively into split concentrates. The split concentrates would be a Ni concentrate "Ni conc" and a Cu concentrate "Cu conc," as economics dictate. Average annual LOM concentrates production (dmt) is expected to be 103,100 dmt of Bulk conc, 95,000 dmt of Ni conc and 19,600 of dmt Cu conc. Total LOM payable metal production includes the following:

• 614.3 M lb nickel;
• 281.5 M lb copper;
• 21.5 M lb cobalt;
• 626,500 troy ounces platinum;
• 743,400 troy ounces palladium;
• 174,400 troy ounces gold.

The tailings would be stored in a tailings storage facility adjacent to the concentrator. Concentrate would be transported by truck 480 km to the Port of Skagway Ore Terminal. Power will be primarily sourced from a liquified natural gas (LNG) power plant.

Social and environmental

The Nickel Shaw project lies within the Kluane First Nation (KFN) core area as defined under the Umbrella final agreement between the government of Canada, government of Yukon and the Council of Yukon First Nations. Effective Aug. 1, 2012, an exploration co-operation agreement was signed between the KFN and the company. The KFN and the government of the Yukon Territory have provided very good support for the Nickel Shaw project.

Ultramafic rocks from the project (in the form of tailings and waste rock) are being assessed for their ability to capture and store carbon. Testwork conducted in 2022 confirmed the presence of brucite (a magnesium-rich mineral known to react quickly with CO2 (carbon dioxide) in air) in a subset of samples. On a mass basis, from the achieved reactivity in the testwork, this may enable maximum sequestration of 2.1 kt CO2 per Mt tailings. The company is evaluating further work which will include the creation of a mineralogy model based on the project's geochemical database to assess the spatial distribution of rocks within the Wellgreen deposit that have high potential to sequester carbon (see news release dated Dec. 15, 2022, for additional details).

Based on the assumed commodity prices noted herein, the LOM revenue by metal is as follows: nickel -- 62 per cent; palladium -- 14 per cent; copper -- 10 per cent; platinum -- 6 per cent; cobalt -- 5 per cent and gold -- 3 per cent.

NPV sensitivities

The discount rate sensitivity is as shown in the attached table.

Sensitivity to nickel and copper prices

The after-tax NPV (in millions of dollars) at a 5-per-cent discount rate is shown in the attached table.

Sensitivity to energy power costs

The pretax and after-tax NPV (in millions of dollars) at a 5-per-cent discount rate is shown in the attached table.

Investment tax credit for clean technology manufacturing

The Canadian 2023 federal budget proposed the introduction of a 30-per-cent refundable investment tax credit for investments in eligible property associated with eligible activities for clean technology manufacturing and processing, as well as critical mineral extraction and processing (the clean ITC). The clean ITC would apply to investments in certain depreciable property that is used all or substantially all for eligible activities. This would generally include machinery and equipment, including certain industrial vehicles and related control systems used in manufacturing, processing or critical mineral extraction. A portion of the clean ITC would be recovered if eligible property is subject to a change in use or sold within a certain period of time.

As of this date, there are no specific details regarding the proposed clean ITC and has not been legislated. Based on assumptions on the capital that could be eligible for the ITC, if the company was able to utilize the 30-per-cent clean ITC, the company estimates that the after-tax NPV for the project at a 5-per-cent discount rate would improve from $143-million to $336-million and the after-tax IRR would improve from 5.8 per cent to 7.2 per cent.

Capex (capital expenditure) and opex (operating expenditure)

The initial capital expenditure contemplated in the PFS, to be incurred over the three-year preproduction period of the project, amounts to approximately $1.7-billion, with the sustaining capital over the remainder of LOM amounts to approximately $600-million. The LOM capital expenditure is summarized as shown in the attached table.

Operating costs

The LOM operating costs are summarized as shown in the attached table.

Future opportunities and value enhancements

The PFS also identified a number of potential optimizations to the project. These include:

• Working with energy providers and Yukon government and other stakeholders on an energy strategy to reduce the costs for the project;
• Additional metallurgical testwork to improve overall recoveries of all payable metals where a 1-per-cent recovery improvement represents approximately an after-tax $111-million improvement to the NPV at a 5-per-cent discount rate;
• Continue drilling on the Arch target to define the potential resource which could provide the opportunity for an early project higher grade feed that may improve overall financial results.

About Nickel Creek Platinum Corp.

Nickel Creek is a Canadian mining exploration and development company and its flagship asset is its 100-per-cent-owned Nickel Shaw project. The Nickel Shaw project is a large undeveloped nickel sulphide project with a unique mix of metals, including copper, cobalt and platinum group metals, located in Yukon, Canada, one of the most favourable jurisdictions in the world. The Nickel Shaw project has exceptional access to infrastructure, located three hours west of Whitehorse via the paved Alaska Highway, which further offers year-round access to deep-sea shipping ports in southern Alaska.

The company is led by a management team with a proven record of successful discovery, development, financing and operation of large-scale projects. Its vision is to create value for its shareholders by becoming a leading North American nickel, copper, cobalt and PGM (platinum group metal) producer.

Qualified persons

The PFS was overseen by AGP and the technical information disclosed in this news release was reviewed and approved by Gordon Zurowski of AGP. Mr. Zurowski is a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and an independent consultant to the company. The scientific and technical information disclosed in this news release in relation to metallurgical testing, including with respect to 2022-23 variability testwork, was reviewed and approved by Gordon Marrs, PEng, of XPS who is a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101 and an independent consultant to the company.

All other scientific and technical information disclosed in this news release was reviewed and approved by Cameron Bell, Nickel Creek's geological consultant and a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101. Please see the technical report (September, 2018) filed under the company's profile at SEDAR+ for a description of the company's data verification and QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control) procedures.

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