Balmoral last week said drilling at its Detour Gold Trend project had begun but the biggest component of its summer-fall programme would be expansion drilling at its Grasset nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE deposit, which had been put on hold in 2015 due to low metal prices.

The LME spot nickel price had slumped below US$7,500/t in early 2016 but last traded above $13,338/t, a similar level to September 2015.

"The Gargoyle property acquisition supplements our renewed focus on nickel exploration and nicely complements the recently announced drill programme at Grasset," president and CEO Darin Wagner said yesterday.

"New, road accessible nickel sulphide discoveries in places like Ontario are very infrequent and we are excited by the opportunity this acquisition represents for the company and its shareholders."

Balmoral can acquire Gargoyle from Karl Bjorkman for C$140,000 and 390,000 shares in staged payments plus a 2% NSR royalty.

Balmoral said the property in the Lumby Lake greenstone belt covered a series of recent nickel discoveries made by Bjorkman Prospecting, which were hosted within a poorly exposed ultramafic komatiite sequence that was traceable through the property over 10km.

"Like the Kambalda camp, the Lumby Lake belts features numerous komatiitic volcanic and intrusive sequences intimately intermixed with sulphide-bearing exhalative sedimentary units, which provide an ideal sulphur source for the formation of nickel sulphide mineralisation," the company said.

It had about C$7 million (US$5.4 million) in adjusted working capital at the end of June.

Balmoral shares were trading at C63c a year ago and rose 3.23% yesterday to 16c.