After completing two winter drilling programs, the company has exceeded the mandated two-year exploration expenditure requirement and has completed the requisite cash payments to its partners, comprising $675,000 to Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (Implats) and $75,000 to Transition Metals Corp. Accordingly, Implats’ interest in the joint venture has been reduced to 24% while Transition maintains a 25% free carried interest through to the completion of a feasibility study.

“We are very pleased to partner with Implats and Transition on the Sunday Lake Project, which is NAP’s best bluesky opportunity and a key element of our long-term strategy to build an inventory of high-quality platinum group metal assets in the Thunder Bay region,” NAP CEO and President Jim Gallagher said. “We have demonstrated that the PGM Zone has significant lateral continuity and are now able to focus on areas of enhanced thickness and grade.”

The Sunday Lake PGM Project is located 25 km north of Thunder Bay in Jacques Township, approximately 60 km south of NAP’s Lac des Iles Mine operations (LDI). The property hosts the Sunday Lake Intrusion, which is part of the Proterozoic Mid-Continental Rift magmatic event that produced the Eagle nickel deposit in Michigan (Lundin Mining) and the Tamarack (Rio Tinto–Talon Resources) and Duluth Complex (Antofagasta PLC) magmatic sulphide deposits in Minnesota.

During the next stage, NAP may increase its interest from 51% to 65% by investing an additional $2.5 million in exploration expenditures and making further cash payments of $125,000 to Transition and $1.125 million to Implats within a two-year period. It may further increase its interest from 65% to 75% by investing an additional $500,000 in exploration expenditures and making cash payments of $150,000 to Transition and $1.35 million to Implats during the third and final investment stage.