Mel

Exploration 

The Mel deposit was discovered by Inco in 1961 and was subsequently explored between 1961 and 1971. Between 1999 and 2004, Inco completed additional drill programs on the Mel project. Victory Nickel acquired the property in 2007 and completed a resource estimate based on 296 drillholes, 126 of which define the deposit. Subsequent work on the property and mineral lease by Victory Nickel included additional drilling in 2007 and 2011, and baseline environmental studies in 2012.

Mel Deposit Geology

The mineral lease contains the Mel Deposit, which has a historical indicated resource of 4.3 million tonnes at 0.875% nickel for 82.5 million pounds of contained nickel and a historical inferred resource estimate of 1.0 million tonnes at 0.839% nickel for 18.7 million pounds of contained nickel.

Historical Resource Estimate For Mel Deposit

The Mel deposit strikes ~345˚ for a distance of 1,500 m, dips 70˚ – 80˚ east, and extends 46 – 183 metres from surface to a depth of 825 metres. The mineralization is characterized by nickel-bearing massive and stringer sulfides within and in contact with ultramafic intrusions. The sulfides are dominantly pyrrhotite with lesser amounts of pentlandite and chalcopyrite. Folded, continuous to discontinuous high-grade nickel-bearing sulfide layers up to 15 m thick (horizontal) are located within a broader mineralized zone with a thickness exceeding 30 metres. Additional drilling in 2011, intersected down-dip extensions of the deposit at depths of 165 to 350 metres, highlighted by 13.71 metres at 0.96% nickel, including 1.2 metres at 2.64% nickel in drill hole M-11-09.

Potential

The Company believes the Mel property is underexplored, with previous focus being mostly on the immediate Mel lease and deposit.

Location and Ownership

CanAlaska’s Mel Project is comprised of one mineral lease and ten mineral claims covering a total of 2,613 hectares in the Thompson Nickel Belt, Manitoba. The Mel project is located within 25 kilometres of Vale Canada Limited’s processing facilities in Thompson, Manitoba. The mineral lease and claims are 100% owned by CanAlaska. The Mel project claims are contiguous with CanAlaska’s 100% owned Hunter and Strong projects. The Mel property and deposit are subject to a Vale 10% net profits royalty. The Mel deposit contains a milling agreement with Vale at cash cost plus 5%, provided that the product meets Vale’s specifications, and that Vale has sufficient mill capacity.

Disclosure

The Mel deposit contains a historical resource estimation completed in compliance with the CIM Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve definitions referred to in NI 43-101, Standards and Disclosure for Mineral Projects, at the time of publication. It also involved the preparation of a Technical Report as defined in NI 43-101, and in compliance with Form 43-101F1. The historical resource was presented in the “Technical Report on the Mel Deposit, Northern Manitoba” prepared for Victory Nickel Inc. by Shahé Naccashian (P.Geo.) of Wardrop Engineering Inc. dated March 9, 2007. The historical resource was calculated using the interpolation methods of nearest neighbour, inverse distance squared, and ordinary kriging. The methods were validated by comparison of global mean grades, visual review of coded block grades, and swath plots. Ordinary kriging methodology was selected for grade estimation on the deposit. The historical resource was completed in the local universal INCO grid (grid 11), that measures in feet. A qualified person with the Company has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. The Company is not treating the historic estimate as current mineral reserves or mineral resources.