Special report for Canadian investors, October 2026
First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp. (TSX-V: FAN, OTCQB: FANCF) owns 100% of Pipestone XL, a 30 km belt in central Newfoundland where awaruite, a natural nickel-iron-cobalt alloy, is concentrated with magnets instead of a smelter. So far in 2026 the company has verified the mineralogy, with awaruite grading up to 77.62% nickel in the alloy, and has produced a 67.4% nickel alloy concentrate with 1.76% cobalt using only magnetic separation and flotation, no smelting required. It has also discovered two new large-scale areas, Alloy Max North and Alloy Max South, in addition to the RPM Zone discovery drilled in 2024 and 2025.

First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt owns 100% of the Pipestone XL Nickel-Cobalt Alloy Project, a 30 km belt in central Newfoundland, Canada. Its target is awaruite (Ni3Fe), a rare, naturally magnetic nickel-iron-cobalt alloy that can be pulled from crushed rock with magnets and upgraded by flotation, with no smelter.[1]
The G7 has already singled nickel out. In June 2026 the G7 leaders named nickel, with lithium, one of the first two pilot minerals for a new allied critical minerals traceability framework.[2] At the same summit France, Germany, Italy and Korea said they intend to partner with Canada to stockpile critical minerals,[3] and Italy was promised preferential access to Canadian critical mineral reserves.[4]
Washington put 50% tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and copper, and never on nickel or cobalt. By its own proclamation the United States cannot process the two metals, and it relies on Canada for its nickel imports.[5][6][7][8] Newfoundland and Labrador already produces 14% of Canada’s nickel and 28% of its cobalt from one mine, Voisey’s Bay, and hosts one of the country’s three nickel refineries at Long Harbour.[9][10] The province is coming through the dispute better than any other province: RBC ranks it first in Canada for growth in 2025 and 2026,[11] and Signal49 Research puts the tariff damage in manufacturing-heavy Ontario and Quebec while higher oil prices and new oil, nickel and gold production carry a province built on oil and gas, mining and critical minerals.[12][13]
Washington named the problem itself. On January 14, 2026 the White House, in Proclamation 11001, found that the United States mines cobalt and nickel but cannot process them:[14]

“Even where the United States has domestic mining capacity, such as for cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements, the United States lacks the domestic processing capacity to avoid downstream net-import reliance.”[14]
Ottawa’s own witnesses say the same about Canada. RBC calls Canada “largely a ‘mine-and-ship’ jurisdiction” for critical minerals, with much of the refining value picked up by China.[15] Canada’s refined nickel production has fallen 54% in a decade,[16] Vale’s Thompson smelter and refinery closed in 2018,[17] Glencore ships its Sudbury matte to Norway to be refined,[18] and Canada now supplies about 4 to 5% of the world’s nickel.[19] On CIBC Capital Markets’ The Raitt Stuff podcast, the Mining Association of Canada put numbers on what holding even that share would take: “seven new nickel mines, two new nickel smelters and a nickel refinery just to maintain current global market share. We’re not talking about expanding market share. We’re talking about just maintaining it.”[20]
Mining more sulfide nickel does not fix it. Nickel mined in Canada today is sulfide ore, which needs a smelter to reduce the nickel to metal before a refinery can process it. Canada has two aging smelters left, both in Sudbury,[21] and nobody is building a third: a new smelter costs billions of dollars on top of the cost of the mine,[22] with years of environmental permitting, heavy electricity use and sulfur and acid waste. The Ring of Fire shows what that means in practice: discovered in 2007, and nineteen years on still no mine in production and no smelter.[23][24] So what could Canada do to keep the value of the nickel and cobalt its allies, defence contractors, stainless steel mills and battery makers are asking for?
First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt (TSX-V: FAN, OTCQB: FANCF) offers a large-scale, environmentally sustainable solution on Canadian soil. Its Pipestone XL discovery is awaruite (Ni3Fe), a rare magnetic nickel-iron-cobalt alloy that nature has already reduced to metal. It can be processed without smelting, bypassing the midstream bottleneck: the alloy concentrate could go directly to downstream refining in Canada for nickel metal or nickel sulfate for batteries, a vertically integrated supply chain from a large-scale Canadian mine to a Canadian refinery with no smelter in between, and out through Newfoundland and Labrador’s ice-free Atlantic deep-water ports to the United States, Europe, Japan and Korea. Pipestone XL could potentially supply a large volume of secure nickel and cobalt to allied refineries and manufacturers, with no reliance on offshore smelting controlled by China, Russia and Chinese-owned plants in Indonesia: a national economic security asset as much as a mining one.
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“Canada remains largely a ‘mine-and-ship’ jurisdiction when it comes to critical minerals.”[15]
Canada mined about 125,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate in 2024 and exported 98,000 tonnes of unwrought nickel: 43% of it to the United States, which counts Canada as the source of 44% of its primary nickel imports, and most of the rest to the Netherlands, Belgium and China.[9][8] That nickel is sulfide ore: it needs a smelter before a refinery can touch it, and the two smelters Canada has left are both in Sudbury, running near capacity under tougher environmental rules.[21]
Nobody is building a new one. A smelter can cost billions of dollars on top of the cost of the mine, with years of environmental permitting, heavy water and power use, and sulfur and acid waste. The Ring of Fire in northern Ontario has had two ferrochrome smelter plans since 2011, when Cliffs said no Ontario site was economic at the province’s power rates; Cliffs suspended the project in 2013, Noront picked Sault Ste. Marie for a $1 billion plant in 2019 with a mid-2025 target, and Wyloo, the current owner, has committed only to the Eagle’s Nest nickel mine, with no smelter.[37][38][39][24] Nineteen years after discovery the first all-season roads were approved only in June and August 2026, nine First Nations have a Charter challenge in court against Ontario’s Bill 5 and the federal Bill C-5, a Federal Court application was filed against the Webequie road in July, and no Ring of Fire mine is in production.[40][41][42][23]
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Ottawa has drawn its own policy line. The Commons defence committee’s first recommendation, in October 2026, is that Canada keep prioritizing domestic processing, refining and midstream capacity as a strategic part of its defence industrial base.[47] Scotiabank calls domestic processing, smelting and refining “a vital national security and trade leverage imperative.”[48] Minister Hodgson says processing “is going to differentiate Canada and put cards in our hand,”[49] and that Canada “will never use our resources as coercive tools.”[50] Processed in Canada, tariff-free on both sides of the border and G7-tracked: that is the policy frame around a nickel-cobalt alloy that needs no smelter.

“Canada is the only country that can reliably supply both the CAF and NATO with both nickel and cobalt, from mining to refining, inside a trusted, geopolitically aligned jurisdiction.”[51]
Almost all of the world’s nickel is mined as sulfide or laterite ore. Sulfide nickel is chemically bound to sulfur, which a smelter burns off at high temperature, releasing SO2. Laterite nickel is spread through clay-rich soil and dissolved out with acid under high pressure. Both routes need costly plants and large amounts of power, and both are hard to permit in North America.
Awaruite is a rare third form: nickel that nature has already turned into metal. Awaruite (Ni3Fe) is a nickel-iron-cobalt alloy (Ni-Fe-Co), formed when ancient ocean mantle rock was altered by water through serpentinization. It is naturally magnetic, so it can be concentrated with magnetic separator drums, the technology proven on Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range and in Labrador’s iron mines for more than a century.

“The development of awaruite deposits in other parts of Canada may help alleviate any prolonged shortage of nickel concentrate. Awaruite, a natural iron-nickel alloy, is much easier to concentrate than pentlandite, the principal sulfide of nickel.”[52]

First Atlantic has drilled the first major awaruite discovery since the USGS wrote that in 2012.[52] Pipestone XL is the largest nickel-cobalt alloy and chromium discovery in the Atlantic in 30 years, since Voisey’s Bay, acquired for $4.3 billion in 1996, more than $8 billion in today’s dollars.[32]
The grains themselves have been measured. In May, electron microprobe analysis of RPM Zone core returned an average of 77.62% nickel and 1.69% cobalt in the awaruite, with peaks of 86.68% nickel and 6.05% cobalt.[25] Cobalt travels inside the alloy, which is why the company became First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt on April 29, 2026.[53]
Smelting is the choke point of the Canadian nickel supply chain, and the step awaruite avoids. Canada had three nickel smelters until Vale shut the Thompson, Manitoba smelter and refinery on July 31, 2018, about 500 jobs, and turned Thompson into a mine-and-mill operation that ships its concentrate to Sudbury.[17][54][55] Vale told U.S. regulators the change was made “as part of our efforts to reduce sulfur dioxide and other air emissions to meet regulatory changes in Ontario and Manitoba, and to rationalize our smelting and refining assets across Canada,”[56] and its Manitoba filing sought relief from the province’s sulphur dioxide cap while the smelter wound down.[55] In Sudbury, Vale is spending about $1 billion to meet Ontario’s tighter sulphur dioxide limits at Copper Cliff and Glencore spent $288 million on emissions projects at its smelter.[57][58] With two aging smelters left and the last U.S. nickel smelter closed since 1998,[59][21] no new nickel smelter is being built or funded on the continent: tighter emission rules make the old ones dearer to run and a new one harder to permit, and awaruite skips the step entirely.
“We are a top-five producer of key battery minerals, including nickel and cobalt, that underpin the transition to zero-emissions transportation... Moreover, as we all know, critical minerals also underpin defence systems and technologies, advanced computing, telecommunications and clean technologies... To put it simply, our critical minerals are crucial to our security, sovereignty and national defence.”[50]
The one new smelter the U.S. Department of War is backing is not for nickel or cobalt. Project Crucible, Korea Zinc’s roughly $7 billion plant at Clarksville, Tennessee, is for zinc, lead, copper and other metals, and faces years of permitting, new power supply and grid upgrades before first metal around 2029.[22][60][61]
First Atlantic has a way around that bottleneck, not a plan to build through it: Pipestone XL rock can be concentrated at the mine with magnets and flotation and shipped straight to a North American refinery, with no smelter, no multi-billion-dollar plant and no new power build-out,[26] cutting the dependence on processing in China, Russia and Chinese-controlled plants in Indonesia and keeping a nickel and cobalt source for Canadian and allied industry inside Canada.
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No smelting saves billions in capital and cuts electricity demand. Against sulfide and laterite nickel, that means:
Washington is now writing the difference between ore and metal into law. The DOMINANCE Act, passed by the U.S. House in June 2026, defines a processed critical mineral as ore converted “into a metal, metal powder, or a master alloy.”[62] Awaruite is a naturally occurring metal alloy of nickel, iron and cobalt: nature has already completed the conversion the bill defines as the end point of processing.[63]

“The Company stands out in the global critical minerals sector with its large-scale discovery of awaruite (Ni3Fe) at its Pipestone XL Project in Newfoundland, an exceptionally rare, naturally-occurring, magnetic, sulfur-free nickel-cobalt-iron alloy. This unique nickel-cobalt mineral can be processed onshore, directly at the mine site, using simple magnetic separation and flotation. The result is a high-grade, environmentally responsible nickel-cobalt concentrate that can move directly into downstream stainless steel, specialty alloy, and battery refining and manufacturing industries supplying the electric vehicle, energy storage, and defense sectors in the United States, Canada, the G7, and allied countries. This is significant because the global critical minerals sector is dominated by a single country that is a non-market economy, and processing awaruite onshore bypasses the midstream smelting and processing constraints concentrated in that country.”[64]
“Because awaruite occurs naturally as a metallic alloy, it can move directly from mine to metal, feeding stainless steel production or refining for downstream applications,” said Dr. Douglas Wicks, Strategic Advisor and former ARPA-E Program Director.[65]
That rare alloy, in that rare form, is what First Atlantic owns across a 30 km belt in Newfoundland.
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On June 24, First Atlantic released its first metallurgical test work on awaruite, run at SGS Canada under a process it calls ONSHORE MAX™ (Magnetic Alloy eXtraction). The feed was RPM Zone core from the discovery hole, grading about 0.12% magnetically recoverable nickel.[26]
Crushed rock passes a low-intensity magnetic separator drum at about 1,000 Gauss. The magnet pulls out the awaruite, giving a magnetic concentrate of about 1.6% nickel.[26]

Flotation with a xanthate-based collector then upgrades that magnetic concentrate.

Four flotation tests averaged 67.4% nickel, from 63.7% to 71.9% nickel, with 1.76% cobalt assayed in the final test.[26]

Nickel sulfide concentrates typically run 10% to 15% nickel before smelting, according to the Nickel Institute,[26] more than four times lower than awaruite’s 67.4% concentrate, so every ton shipped and processed carries far less metal.
| Awaruite at Pipestone XL | Sulfide and laterite nickel | |
|---|---|---|
Nickel grade | ✓About 77% nickel, a natural metal alloy | ✕About 25% nickel in sulfide; 1% to 2% in laterite |
Concentrate grade | ✓67.4% nickel average, 63.7% to 71.9%, with 1.76% cobalt | ✕Commonly 10% to 15% nickel, as low as 1% |
Mine-site processing | ✓Magnetic separation and flotation | ✕Flotation, smelting, roasting or high-pressure acid leaching |
Secondary processing | ✓Not required, concentrate ships direct to a refinery | ✕Required: potentially billions in capex for a smelter or HPAL (high-pressure acid leach) plant, plus the energy to run it |
Smelter charges (TC/RC) | ✓None, it does not need to be smelted at all | ✕Charged per tonne of concentrate and deducted from the miner’s payment, plus shipping, and when the smelter is in another country, potential export and import taxes and tariffs on top |
Electricity demand | ✓Low | ✕Higher |
Pollution from acid-generating mine waste | ✓None | ✕SO2, acid mine drainage, sulfuric acid waste |
Tailings | ✓Sulfur-free and inert | ✕Toxic and acid-generating |
Permitting | ✓Faster | ✕Harder: acid mine drainage and water issues |
The difference is in the mineral. Sulfide and laterite nickel have to be broken out of sulfur, oxide or silicate bonds in a smelter or an acid autoclave before they are metal. Awaruite is already a nickel-cobalt-iron alloy, so Pipestone XL rock goes from magnet and flotation cell straight to a high-grade concentrate, and the smelter, its charges, its electricity and its acid waste drop out of the chain.[25] That is ONSHORE MAX™, First Atlantic’s smelter-free process.
The Pipestone XL Nickel-Cobalt Alloy Project covers the 30 km Pipestone Ophiolite Complex, a 489-million-year-old slab of ancient ocean crust and mantle thrust onto land along the Appalachian Orogen. The whole belt is enriched in nickel, cobalt and chromium through serpentinization, the natural process that frees nickel from the rock and forms the alloy.
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Five zones along the 30 km belt: the historic Atlantic Lake Zone and four found by First Atlantic since 2024, RPM, Super Gulp, Alloy Max North and Alloy Max South, where drilling has confirmed magnetically recoverable awaruite with chromite. About 16 km of the belt, roughly half, is still underexplored, and each new stretch opened along the trend adds potential.
Every drill hole has hit. 18 holes since 2024, every one intersecting awaruite nickel-cobalt alloy with chromite: the first, AN-24-01 at Super Gulp, carried visible awaruite from surface over its full 297 metres, then 13 at RPM and 4 at Alloy Max, four zones found by the drill.[66][30][31]

RPM Zone, 2024 and 2025. The first 4 holes, in 2024, had a 100% success rate. In 2025, 9 more expanded RPM to more than 1.2 km of strike and 800 meters of width,[30] with intercepts up to 447 meters and magnetic concentrates grading up to 2.35% nickel (AN-25-06) and 8.17% chromium (AN-24-02).[68][69] All 13 RPM holes returned positive magnetically recoverable awaruite. AN-25-11 ran 0.13% nickel by Davis Tube Recovery, the share of nickel a magnet can recover, over 402 meters, with a magnetic concentrate of 1.31% nickel over the whole interval.[30]

Wide, consistent, disseminated mineralization of this kind is ideal for a large-scale open-pit mine. RPM drill results in order: every reported hole, with the magnetically recoverable (DTR) nickel grade over the full mineralized interval and the grade of the magnetic concentrate the Davis Tube produced. DTR nickel is the nickel a magnet can pull from the rock; the concentrate grade is what that magnetic fraction runs before flotation.[30]
| Hole | Sec. | From | To | Length (m) | DTR Ni % | Conc. Ni % | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AN-24-02 | S1 | 11 | 394 | 383 | 0.13 | 1.37 | Mar 12, 2025 |
| AN-24-03 | S1 | 18 | 234 | 216 | 0.11 | 1.32 | Apr 15, 2025 |
| AN-24-04 | S1 | 12 | 378 | 366 | 0.14 | 1.46 | Jun 24, 2025 |
| AN-24-05 | S2 | 6 | 357 | 351 | 0.12 | 1.47 | Jul 9, 2025 |
| AN-25-06 | S2 | 5.65 | 453 | 447 | 0.11 | 1.27 | Aug 12, 2025 |
| AN-25-07 | S2 | 9 | 495 | 486 | 0.09 | 0.97 | Oct 23, 2025 |
| AN-25-08 | S3 | 11 | 491 | 480 | 0.12 | 1.35 | Oct 23, 2025 |
| AN-25-09 | S3 | 9 | 483 | 474 | 0.08 | 0.93 | Dec 2, 2025 |
| AN-25-10 | S1 | 8 | 236 | 228 | 0.15 | 1.44 | Dec 2, 2025 |
| AN-25-11 | S1 | 23 | 425 | 402 | 0.13 | 1.31 | Jan 27, 2026 |
| AN-25-12 | S1 | 10.4 | 95 | 84.6 | 0.10 | 1.24 | Jan 27, 2026 |
| AN-25-13 | S4 | 17 | 388 | 371 | 0.10 | 1.11 | Jan 27, 2026 |
| AN-25-14 | S0 | 8 | 335 | 327 | 0.05 | 0.54 | Jan 27, 2026 |
Source: company news releases, March 12, 2025 to January 27, 2026, as tabulated in the January 27, 2026 release. Intervals are drilled lengths, not true widths.
Alloy Max, 2026. On March 18 the company announced Alloy Max, a second large-scale awaruite target about 7 km north of RPM, mapped at about 4 km long.[70] Drilling has since found awaruite in two areas 2.4 km apart, Alloy Max North and Alloy Max South:

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Alloy Max drilling now spans about 2.4 km of strike, XL-26-17 in the north to XL-26-18 in the south, and over 1 km of width, against the 1.2 km by 800 meters drilled at RPM.[31] XL-26-18 ended in visible awaruite at about 40 meters in faulted ground the current rig was not able to advance through; follow-up hole XL-26-19 is testing below it from a new collar, and the company is assessing a larger drill to push deeper.[31]

Five zones, potential for multiple pits. Pipestone XL has three new near-surface awaruite discoveries, RPM, Alloy Max North and Alloy Max South, over about 7 km of one 30 km belt, plus the historic Atlantic Lake and Super Gulp zones and the Chrome Pond target.[31] The district model is a chain of large, shallow, magnetically recoverable zones, each a candidate for open-pit, bulk-tonnage mining of the kind iron ore operations run with the same magnetic separator drums, all feeding one central ONSHORE MAX™ concentrator rather than one deposit and one plant.[70] With minimal overburden and road access along the trend, every new zone that drills like RPM or Alloy Max adds a potential pit.[70]
RPM, Alloy Max North and Alloy Max South, all open, and the rest of a 30 km belt still to test: that is the ground First Atlantic is drilling.
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At First Atlantic’s Ophiolite-X project in the Bay of Islands complex, natural springs discharge hydrogen from active serpentinization, and a study cited by the company puts geologic hydrogen production costs below the U.S. Department of Energy’s $1/kg target.[72]
On June 8, 2026, Vema Hydrogen and First Atlantic signed a non-binding letter of intent for a 50/50 joint venture to develop Engineered Mineral Hydrogen (EMH) at Pipestone XL. Vema runs the world’s first EMH project, in the Thetford ophiolite in Quebec, and lab tests of Pipestone rock at its Orléans facility in France confirmed hydrogen production through stimulated serpentinization.[73]
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“Vema’s Engineered Mineral Hydrogen is on the verge of delivering clean energy at a scale cost-competitive with hydrocarbons. Awaruite forms through serpentinization when hydrogen reduces nickel and iron, so its presence at Pipestone XL is a clear signature of a hydrogen-rich system. Vema’s technology could engineer that same reaction for hydrogen production, and Pipestone XL is an ideal location due to its size, proximity to infrastructure, and the potential for cost efficiencies in co-locating hydrogen production with nickel & cobalt mining. Having worked closely with Vema’s founders since before the company’s founding, and having seen firsthand how they developed the engineered approach to geologic hydrogen, I believe Pipestone XL represents a compelling opportunity to bring this technology to commercial scale.”[73]
Chromium. Microprobe analysis confirmed the chromium sits in chromite grading 60.2% Cr2O3, and the company is testing ways to recover it as a co-product.[25] Grade is what matters in chromite: metallurgical-grade ore for ferrochrome and stainless steel is benchmarked at about 48% Cr2O3,[74] and the Ring of Fire’s Black Thor deposit, Canada’s largest chromite prospect, averages about 31.5%.[75] North America mines no chromium: U.S. mine production was zero from 2021 to 2025, 96% of its ore comes from South Africa, and there is no substitute for chromium in stainless steel.[76] Chromium is on Canada’s critical minerals list,[77] the Ring of Fire’s smelter was never built, and Quebec’s historic Eastern Townships chromite was mined only in wartime and was too small or too low grade to compete.[78]

Hydrogen and chromium add two more lines of value to the nickel and cobalt First Atlantic is drilling.
The International Monetary Fund puts accumulated production value from 2021 to 2040 at $4.1 trillion for nickel and $1.6 trillion for cobalt.[79] The International Energy Agency estimates 60 new nickel mines and 17 new cobalt mines will be needed by 2030.[80]
The United States holds less than 1% of global nickel reserves.[81] By 2035 its nickel import reliance is projected at 9,275%, the highest of any critical mineral, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.[82]

Supply is concentrated where China invests. Indonesia mines more than 60% of the world’s nickel. After it banned raw ore exports in 2020, Chinese state-backed companies invested an estimated $65 billion for near-total control of Indonesian processing, and Indonesia’s own parliament confirmed that China controls 90% of the country’s nickel industry.[83]
First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt (OTCQB: FANCF, TSX-V: FAN), a nickel-cobalt source in Newfoundland and Labrador processed without a smelter, sits outside that system.
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Canada is a small nickel consumer, so the market is abroad. Goldman Sachs puts 2025 nickel consumption at about 429,000 tonnes in Europe, 222,000 tonnes in Japan and 229,000 tonnes in the United States, against about 2.0 million tonnes in China.[84] Europe still gets 15% of its nickel imports from Russia: the United Kingdom and the United States sanctioned Russian nickel in April 2024 and the European Union did not,[85] and after 19 sanctions packages Russian nickel still moves through Rotterdam.[86] The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act says no single outside country should supply more than 65% of any strategic raw material by 2030, and battery-grade nickel is on its strategic list.[87][88]
Canada has already signed the partners up. France, Germany, Italy and Korea intend to stockpile critical minerals with Canada;[3] Canada and Korea are writing a joint stockpiling plan for the end of 2026;[89] Canada and Germany agreed a stockpiling partnership leading to capital investment by the end of 2026;[90] Japan and Canada are in stockpiling talks;[91] and the Canada-UK statement on critical minerals singles out Canadian nickel and cobalt as “some of the least emissions intensive in the world.”[92] Korean and Japanese groups have been buying into Canadian nickel directly: Samsung SDI took a stake in Canada Nickel with an option on 10% of Crawford’s nickel and cobalt,[93] and Sumitomo Metal Mining took 9.9% of FPX Nickel, whose Baptiste project in British Columbia is also awaruite.[94]

The port is the other half of the story. The Port of Argentia on Placentia Bay is an ice-free, deep-water port on the open Atlantic,[96] with a straight run to Rotterdam and the North Sea, to Baltimore and the U.S. east coast, and on to Asia. The United States stays the nearest customer, and the Carnegie Endowment projects U.S. nickel demand at about 750,000 tonnes by 2035 against 8,000 tonnes of domestic supply.[82]
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How much nickel does one gigafactory use? One 35 GWh gigafactory, enough cells for about 500,000 Teslas a year, needs roughly 26,250 tonnes of nickel against 3,885 tonnes of lithium and 3,290 tonnes of cobalt, close to 1% of world nickel output for one plant, and some 300 gigafactory-type projects are built, under way or planned.[97] Europe already has about 30 gigafactories operating with more than 300 GWh of capacity,[98] Japan is targeting 150 GWh of domestic capacity by 2030,[99] and North America’s own build-out runs from Nevada and Texas to Ontario, and none of it has a smelter-free nickel source behind it.[97]


Nickel and cobalt in one alloy, from Canada, with no smelter: that is what Pipestone XL brings to that market.
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Pipestone XL lies within about 200 km of an international airport and Vale’s Long Harbour nickel plant, with road access to the Trans-Canada Highway.[1][103] The province’s hydro rates are among the cheapest in North America, its deep-sea ports allow direct Atlantic shipping, and the Fraser Institute ranks it 7th in the world on mining policy.[104]
The province is leading the country through the trade dispute. RBC forecasts Newfoundland and Labrador real GDP growth of 3.5% in 2025 and 4.0% in 2026, first among the ten provinces both years, against 1.0% for Canada in 2026;[11] the province’s own budget puts 2025 growth at 4.8%, the highest in Canada, with 5.5% forecast for 2026.[13] Mineral shipments were about $4.6 billion in 2025, exploration spending is forecast at a record $283.3 million in 2026,[13] and the Department of Energy and Mines issued 524 exploration approvals in its last fiscal year.[105]
Permitting is the province’s selling point. Newfoundland and Labrador was the only one of 68 jurisdictions where 100% of permits were processed within six months or less in the Fraser Institute’s 2025 survey.[35] In August 2026 Premier Wakeham made his mines minister, Lloyd Parrott, also the Minister of Red Tape Reduction,[106] and on September 8 the province signed a “one project, one review” agreement with Ottawa so projects face a single assessment instead of two.[107] Valentine Gold is the proof: Marathon Gold registered the project for provincial assessment in April 2019, the provincial release came in March 2022 (“earlier than expected,” the CEO said), the federal decision in August 2022, construction started that fall, and Equinox Gold poured first gold on September 14, 2025, again earlier than expected, with commercial production in November.[43][44][45][108][46] About three years to permit and three years to build, in the same province as Pipestone XL.
Power is being secured too. On August 17, 2026 Ottawa, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador announced a new Churchill Falls and Gull Island agreement with C$10 billion of federal financing, under which the province would keep up to 2,350 MW of hydro power for its own industrial development and a $1 billion Labrador West transmission line would open the Labrador Trough to mining.[36][109] Mines Minister Parrott pointed to “hundreds of billions of dollars in critical minerals in Labrador that we have been unable to develop due to lack of power,”[36] and Prime Minister Carney, in St. John’s: “When we master energy, we master our destiny.”[110] The agreement passed the House of Assembly on September 18, is not yet binding, and Quebec’s new government is reviewing it.[111][112] Pipestone XL does not wait on it: the 230 kV grid lines carrying Bay d’Espoir hydro power already pass near the project.

The province has hosted a major nickel-cobalt discovery before: Voisey’s Bay, acquired for $4.3 billion in 1996,[32] and in 2022 Tesla signed a supply deal with Vale for Voisey’s Bay nickel for its North American gigafactories.[113] That is the province’s history, not a forecast for Pipestone XL.
A top-ranked province with road access, cheap power, quick permits and an Atlantic deep-water port is where First Atlantic holds 100% of Pipestone XL.


“North America has limited smelting capacity to meet future nickel and cobalt demand. Pipestone XL is a significant, large-scale ophiolite complex approximately 30 kilometres long, where awaruite occurs disseminated in the ultramafic host rock over large areas. It has the potential to be a large source of both metals without smelting, moving directly into downstream refining and bypassing that midstream processing constraint.”[1]
Adrian Smith, P.Geo., Chief Executive Officer and director, is a geologist with 15 years of mining and exploration experience. He has built and grown resource projects, including one taken from discovery to more than 7 billion tonnes defined within two years, was behind two recent porphyry discoveries in British Columbia and several resource expansions, and has raised millions in equity financing. B.Sc. Geology, Simon Fraser University.[114]


Gary Stanley, Senior Strategic Advisor, former Director of the Office of Critical Minerals and Metals at the U.S. Department of Commerce and lead author of the 2019 Federal Critical Mineral Strategy.[64]
Dr. Douglas Wicks, Strategic Advisor, former ARPA-E Program Director at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he led the MINER program and geologic hydrogen work.[65]
Funding. Since September 2026, First Atlantic has raised about $13.4 million in three no-warrant private placements, the latest at a premium of about 22% to market.[1]
A geologist CEO who has taken a discovery to a defined deposit before, Washington critical minerals experience at his side and a funded drill program: that is the team behind First Atlantic.
In 2026 the nickel price fell[28] and the Sprott Nickel Miners ETF fell further,[29] while First Atlantic’s shares rose.[27] The difference is the processing route and the 2026 results, not the metal price. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

What nickel discoveries have sold for. Four nickel acquisitions, as announced and in 2026 dollars, set against First Atlantic’s market cap of about C$120 million. Each company and project is different, and past transactions are not a prediction of any future transaction or of First Atlantic’s value.

Questions about investing in First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt?
Call Investor Relations, Rob Guzman: 1-844-592-6337
First Atlantic trades in Canada on the TSX Venture Exchange under FAN and in the United States on the OTCQB under FANCF. Search the symbol at TD Direct Investing, RBC Direct Investing, Questrade, Wealthsimple, BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor’s Edge, Scotia iTRADE or your own broker.
Follow the share price and the news as XL-26-19 tests below the Alloy Max South discovery and bulk sample work advances at RPM.
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Drill results and metallurgical results from Pipestone XL are released by news release. Get them as they come out:
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Pipestone XL is a smelter-free Canadian source of nickel and cobalt in Newfoundland, held 100% by First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp. (TSX-V: FAN | OTCQB: FANCF).
Rob Guzman
Investor Relations, First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp.
1-844-592-6337 | rob@fanickel.com
Investor Relations: Robert Guzman | 1-844-592-6337 | ir@fanickel.com
First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp.
Suite 1890, 1075 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 3C9, Canada
ir@fanickel.com
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This webpage has been prepared and distributed by First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp. and constitutes a promotional communication. It is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice or a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities. Investing in securities involves risk, including the risk of loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and no assurance can be given that any objectives, projections or expectations described on this page will be achieved. Market forecasts cited on this page are third-party views and are inherently uncertain; actual price and demand outcomes may differ materially.
No securities regulator or stock exchange has reviewed or accepts responsibility for its contents. Recipients should conduct their own research and consult qualified investment professionals before making any investment decisions. By reading this communication, you acknowledge and agree that neither First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp. nor any of its directors, officers, employees, agents, or promoters accepts any liability for any direct or consequential loss or damages arising from reliance on the information contained herein.
The scientific and technical information on this page has been reviewed and approved by Adrian Smith, director and the Chief Executive Officer of the Company whom is a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101. The qualified person is a member in good standing of the Professional Engineers and Geoscientists Newfoundland and Labrador (PEGNL) and is a registered professional geoscientist (P.Geo.). Unless otherwise indicated, the technical information on this page is derived from the Company's previously filed disclosure, including news releases available under the Company's profile on SEDAR+.
This page contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, including, without limitation, statements regarding: anticipated North American and U.S. demand for nickel, cobalt and chromium; projected supply deficits, import dependence and price trends; the potential strategic importance of the Pipestone XL Project; the potential for awaruite mineralization to support smelter-free or onshore processing; the potential ability of concentrate from the Project to be processed by downstream North American customers; expected metallurgical, recovery, concentrate grade, by-product and processing outcomes; the extent, scale and continuity of mineralization; future exploration, drilling, metallurgical testing and development plans; permitting, environmental, infrastructure and timeline advantages; and potential opportunities relating to chromium, geologic hydrogen and carbon capture. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by words such as "expects," "plans," "targets," "believes," "projects," "potential," "could," "may," "will," "anticipates," and similar expressions.
Forward-looking information on this page is based on a number of material factors and assumptions, including, among other things: the accuracy of current geological, geophysical, geochemical, drilling, sampling, assay and metallurgical data interpretations; the continuation of observed mineralization and metallurgical characteristics; the ability to obtain results from additional drilling and testing consistent with results to date; the availability of financing, personnel, equipment and contractor support; the timely receipt of permits, approvals and access; the availability of infrastructure, processing, refining and transportation alternatives; the continuation of supportive critical mineral, trade and industrial policies in Canada and the United States; and management's current expectations regarding market conditions, demand, pricing and supply chain dynamics for nickel, cobalt and chromium.
Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. These include, without limitation: exploration results not supporting current interpretations; drilling, sampling, assay, metallurgical or recovery results that differ from results obtained to date; the absence of a mineral resource estimate or economic study demonstrating economic viability; changes in commodity prices, demand forecasts, tariffs, quotas, trade measures or critical mineral policies; the inability to secure financing, permits, social licence, infrastructure, contractors, processing arrangements or offtake relationships on acceptable terms or at all; technical, engineering, processing, scale-up or recovery challenges; cost inflation; environmental and regulatory risks; title, access, weather and operational risks; and general economic, market and capital markets conditions. Readers are cautioned that actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking information on this page, and undue reliance should not be placed on such information.
The forward-looking information on this page is made as of the date of publication of this page, and First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp. undertakes no obligation to update or revise such information except as required by applicable securities laws.
Readers should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings available on SEDAR+ and should conduct their own independent review before making any investment decision.
© 2026 First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp. | TSX-V: FAN | OTCQB: FANCF | FSE: P210
First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp., Suite 1890, 1075 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 3C9, Canada. Investor Relations: 1-844-592-6337, ir@fanickel.com.