Canada Nickel's C$15M Raise: A Bet on Clean Nickel Amid Market Flux

TORONTO, ON – November 24, 2025 – In a market defined by caution, Canada Nickel Company (TSX-V: CNC) has just sent a powerful signal of investor confidence. The company announced today that its previously arranged "bought deal" private placement was not only successful but significantly oversubscribed, culminating in C$15 million in gross proceeds after underwriters, led by Red Cloud Securities Inc., fully exercised their over-allotment option.

While any capital raise is noteworthy for a development-stage mining firm, this transaction is more than just a line item on a balance sheet. It represents a strategic endorsement of the company’s vision and its flagship Crawford Nickel Sulphide Project at a time when the global nickel market is grappling with an identity crisis. As institutional capital places its bet, the move underscores a deeper current in the market: the growing premium on large-scale, low-carbon critical mineral projects located in stable jurisdictions.

The Anatomy of a Confident Deal

A bought deal, where underwriters purchase an entire offering to resell to their clients, inherently signals confidence. The fact that demand outstripped the initial C$12 million offering, prompting the full C$3 million over-allotment, speaks volumes. This C$15 million infusion, structured as units priced at C$1.20, provides Canada Nickel with the necessary runway to aggressively advance its cornerstone asset.

Each unit comprises one common share and one-half of a purchase warrant. These warrants, exercisable at C$1.80 within 36 months, provide an additional layer of potential future funding and act as a compelling incentive for early investors. They represent a belief not just in the company's current valuation, but in its significant upside potential as the Crawford project moves from blueprint to reality. The proceeds are earmarked for the critical pre-construction phase: advancing engineering, navigating the permitting process, and bolstering working capital. This isn't speculative capital for exploration; it's foundational funding for project execution.

The continued partnership with Red Cloud Securities, which also participated in a C$13 million financing earlier in the year, highlights a sustained belief from the financial community in Canada Nickel's strategy and management. In the high-risk world of junior mining, such consistent and successful access to capital is a crucial differentiator.

Crawford: A Project of National and Global Scale

The investor enthusiasm is directly tied to the asset being funded: the Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project. Located in the prolific Timmins mining district of Ontario, Crawford is a project of immense scale. It boasts the world's second-largest nickel reserve, with over 1.7 billion tonnes of reserves underpinning a projected 41-year mine life. Critically, its feasibility study projects life-of-mine cash costs in the first quartile globally, making it economically robust even in fluctuating commodity price environments.

What truly sets Crawford apart, however, is its strategic positioning in the green energy transition. Canada Nickel is actively pursuing trademarks for "NetZero Nickel™," "NetZero Cobalt™," and "NetZero Iron™." This isn't just marketing; the project's geology and proposed processing methods are being designed to leverage carbon sequestration to create a potentially net-zero carbon mining operation. This ambition directly addresses the Achilles' heel of the EV revolution: the carbon-intensive nature of its own supply chain.

The Canadian government has taken notice. On November 13, the Crawford Project was officially referred to the federal Major Projects Office, a move designed to streamline and accelerate the regulatory and permitting process. This designation signals that Ottawa views Crawford not just as a commercial venture, but as a piece of strategic national infrastructure vital for securing Canada's role in the global EV and clean energy economy. With a construction decision targeted by the end of 2025 and a potential opening by 2027, the project's timeline is ambitious, and this C$15 million is a key catalyst to maintaining that momentum.

Navigating a Turbulent Nickel Market

Canada Nickel's financing success is even more remarkable when viewed against the backdrop of the global nickel market. The market is currently awash in supply, driven almost entirely by a massive expansion of nickel pig iron (NPI) production in Indonesia. This supply glut has put downward pressure on prices and created significant uncertainty.

However, a closer look reveals a bifurcated market. The Indonesian supply, while plentiful, comes with significant environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns and is geographically concentrated. Western automakers and battery manufacturers, under pressure to build resilient and clean supply chains, are increasingly wary of this dependency. They are actively seeking long-term offtake agreements for "clean nickel" from politically stable regions.

This is the current that Canada Nickel is tapping into. The Crawford project offers precisely what the market is beginning to crave: scale, a low-carbon footprint, and jurisdictional security. The investor appetite for this C$15 million offering demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of this dynamic. It's a bet that while the overall market may be oversupplied with "dirty nickel," a structural deficit of sustainable, battery-grade nickel sulphide is emerging. Canada Nickel is positioning itself as a primary solution to that impending squeeze.

Reading Between the Lines of Market Performance

Despite the resounding success of the financing, a cursory glance at Canada Nickel's recent stock performance (TSX-V: CNC) might seem contradictory. The stock has seen a decline in the weeks leading up to this announcement. This disconnect highlights a classic feature of the junior resource sector: the divergence between short-term market trading and long-term strategic value creation.

The oversubscribed placement represents "patient capital" from institutional investors and insiders who are focused on the multi-year development timeline of the Crawford project. They see the current valuation as an attractive entry point for a world-class asset. The short-term stock volatility, on the other hand, can be attributed to broader market jitters, pre-financing price adjustments, and retail profit-taking.

For astute observers of capital currents, the story isn't the daily stock chart; it's the successful execution of a major financing in a challenging environment. It confirms that the underlying value proposition of the Crawford project is strong enough to attract significant capital. This C$15 million is a critical step that de-risks the project's path to a construction decision, bridging the gap between today's valuation and the immense economic potential outlined in the project's feasibility study.