Business

NexMetals triples resource estimate in Phikwe

Mbongeni Mguni | Thursday October 22, 2026 09:11

Glory days: BCL Mine was the country’s primary base metals producer prior to 2016
 
Glory days: BCL Mine was the country’s primary base metals producer prior to 2016

Selebi North and Selebi Main are the two main deposits that were being tapped by the former BCL Mine when it closed in 2016. NexMetals, formerly Premium Nickel Resources, snapped up the shafts, as well as Selkirk Mine from government, in a deal pegged at P837 million in 2022.

An update from the Canadian firm on Tuesday states that an extensive drilling campaign to update the 2024 mineral resource indicates that apart from the substantial increase in Selebi North’s indicated resources, the deposits inferred resource has risen to about 42 million tonnes from 24.7 million in the 2024 mineral resource estimate. Earlier this month,

NexMetals also increased its estimate for the inferred resource at Selebi Main to 32.47 million tonnes with a grading of 1.53 percent copper and 0.97 percent nickel compared with 18.89 million tonnes grading 1.69 percent copper and 0.88 percent nickel in the 2024 mineral resource estimate. Commenting on the latest resource estimates,

NexMetals CEO, Sean Whiteford said the developments could have positive implications for future mine design and project economics. He said as the company continues to advance the Selebi preliminary economic assessment, we are allowing additional time to better understand the scale and geometry of the expanding resource, inform the placement of critical infrastructure and evaluate alternative restart options.