December 18, 2023

Dear shareholders, supporters, friends, and followers,

This year has been an exciting year for our company, but also a year in which, like many junior mining companies, our share price has reflected exceptionally tough capital market conditions and lower metal prices. As 2023 draws to a close, I thought that it would be a good time to recap what Magna has accomplished this year and what we plan to accomplish in 2024.

A successful 24,000 meter drilling campaign, including multiple high grade intersections: This year Magna announced some of the best nickel intersections (grade x length) of any junior miner in the world. Some of our most impressive intersections were reported from the 101 FW zone, and included:

  • MCR-22-005: 4.0 % Ni, 0.7 % Cu, 0.7 g/t Pt + Pd + Au over 31.1 metres
  • MCR-23-041: 3.0% Ni, 0.7% Cu, 1.2 g/t Pt + Pd + Au over 31.6 metres
  • MCR-23-042: 4.2% Ni, 1.4% Cu, 1.0 g/t Pt + Pd + Au over 27.6 metres

These intersections are from a portion of the 101 FW that is within 150m of the surface, and which will contribute to the test mining that will be part of a future underground advanced exploration program. Notably, we have sufficient capital on hand to execute another aggressive exploration program at Crean Hill and Shakespeare in 2024. This will include 25,000 m of diamond drilling, with a large portion of this drilling budget dedicated to pursuing a new footwall deposit discovery at Crean Hill. It is also worth remembering that none of these impressive intercepts were included in the PEA that was released in July because the drill results were received after the PEA was commissioned.

Completion of a PEA on Crean Hill: The PEA which Magna released in July demonstrated the potential for a long life mining operation with low pre-production capital expenditures and assumed that that ore from Crean Hill would be sold to a local third party mill for the life-of-mine. The PEA also examined an alternative processing scenario which assumed that Crean Hill ore would be processed through a future mill at Magna’s Shakespeare Project. The reduction in the processing costs resulted in a reduced cut-off grade, an even longer mine life, and increased the Net Present Value (8%) for the Crean Hill project by more than 100%. Complete details for the PEA can found at the link here. As a result of the positive results outlined in the alternative processing scenario, internal trade-off studies are currently underway for a combined Crean Hill – Shakespeare operation. We expect to award the contract for the next technical study sometime in 2024.

New executive appointments: This year, Magna made two new executive appointments which added considerable strength and expertise to our executive team. In May, Magna hired Ann-Marie Finney as our full-time Chief Financial Officer. Ann-Marie has a background in treasury and finance with Barrick, Kirkland Lake Gold and Northland Power. She has a Mining Engineering degree and an MBA. In November, Magna appointed Jeff Huffman as our Chief Operating Officer. Previously Jeff was the President of Dumas Contracting, an international mining contracting company. He was also part of FNX Mining and subsequently the the KGHMI team in Sudbury, where he managed operations and projects at the McCreedy West and Levack Mines, and at the Victoria Project. Jeff is a graduate of the Haileybury School of Mines, has an MBA from Athabasca University, and holds the designation of Project Management Professional.

 

Significant financing to fund the 2023 and 2024 exploration programs: In January 2023, Magna closed a financing for proceeds of C$15 million of flow-though dollars (at $1.81/share) and C$3 million in hard dollars (at a price of $1.10/share). A few months prior to this financing, in November 2022, Magna completed a C$20 million hard dollar financing in conjunction with the acquisition of Lonmin Canada. These financings provided Magna with sufficient cash to fund a robust exploration drilling program in 2023 and sufficient remaining capital to fully fund our budgeted 25,000m drilling program in 2024. On September 30, 2023, Magna had $15.5 million in cash in the treasury.

 

Progress with advanced exploration permitting and approvals:

  • Crean Hill closure plan: In August, Magna submitted the amended Crean Hill closure plan for review by the Ministry of Mines. Following this review and the resolution of subsequent comments, we now expect the closure plan to be filed by the end of 2023 or early in January 2024. Once filed, Magna will be able to proceed with a surface bulk sample, which we would like to commence in Q1 2024. We believe that this sample will provide good information on the consistency and grade reconciliation against the current block model, which will benefit Magna with stope designs for underground advanced exploration.
  • Permit to take water. The Permit to Take Water (PTTW) at Crean Hill has been submitted, subsequent comments have been received and addressed, and we expect to have the permit approved within weeks. This will allow Magna to dewater the underground workings at Crean Hill, which is required to commence the underground advanced exploration program. The goal of advanced exploration is to test mine the 101 FW and 109 FW areas, as well as areas of the Intermediate deposit.
  • Ore-selling agreement: Throughout the second half of 2023 we have been in discussions with the owners of the local mills and we have made excellent progress on terms for ore selling. We anticipate having a signed agreement within the coming weeks.

Given our current cash balance, Magna is fortunate to be in a position where we can continue to aggressively explore our Crean Hill and Shakespeare properties in 2024 without the need for further financing. We are also fortunate that multiple non-equity funding solutions remain open to our company. Magna Mining is a potential near term critical mineral producer in an extremely desirable jurisdiction with a strategically important asset base. We are eligible for multiple new government funding programs, we retain 100% of our offtake, we have no debt on our balance sheet, and we have significant and valuable potential future by-product credits. Given the large amount of equity ownership that our executives, directors and insiders have in the company, you can be confident that we will comprehensively consider the future capital structure of our company when we make decisions related to fulfilling our exciting growth objectives over the coming years.

Wishing you all a healthy and happy holiday season, and a successful 2024.

Jason Jessup, CEO, Magna Mining Inc.

Ongoing activity at Crean Hill, Summer 2023

MCR-23-052A (press release Nov 3rd, 2023)

About Magna Mining Inc.

 

Magna Mining is an exploration and development company focused on nickel, copper and PGM projects in the Sudbury Region of Ontario, Canada. The Company’s flagship assets are the past producing Shakespeare and Crean Hill Mines. The Shakespeare mine has major permits for the construction of a 4,500 tonne per day open pit mine, processing plant and tailings storage facility and is surrounded by a contiguous 180km2 prospective land package. Crean Hill is a past producing nickel, copper and PGM mine with a Preliminary Economic Assessment, prepared in accordance with NI 43-101, dated July 2023. Additional information about the Company is available on SEDAR (www.sedarplus.ca) and on the Company’s website (www.magnamining.com).

Jason Jessup
CEO
Magna Mining Inc.
Paul Fowler
Senior Vice President
Magna Mining Inc.

One thought on “Magna Mining, 2023 in Review – Letter from the CEO

  1. Ryan says:

    Back to my purchase price at forty cents! I’m out! Sold I all my Magna Mining stock today. Divesting my portfolio of all juniors. Worst investment sector possible. If it was a matter of waiting for higher prices that’s one thing. But the relentless dilution is a killer. Good luck to all!

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