RNC Successfully Completes Salt Lake Mining Transaction and...

RNC Successfully Completes Salt Lake Mining Transaction and Increases Ownership Stake to 66%













English

TORONTO, March 16, 2016 /CNW/ - Royal Nickel Corporation ("RNC") (TSX: RNX) announces that it has successfully completed the transaction announced on February 1, 2016 and has acquired an additional 46% of Salt Lake Mining Pty Ltd. ("SLM") to increase its ownership stake to 66%.

The additional 46% stake was acquired from the existing SLM shareholders in exchange for 31.9 million common shares of RNC. The 20% interest in SLM acquired by RNC on February 1, 2016 was in exchange for CDN$2.5 million.

"We are excited about the ongoing ramp up of low cost gold and nickel production at SLM's Beta Hunt Mine in Western Australia. We will work hard with SLM management to ramp up gold into full production, expected to reach over 50koz on an annualized basis by the end of 2016, and aggressively advance the significant exploration potential. With this transaction completed, we look forward to now pushing forward on the acquisition of VMS Ventures, which was announced on February 1st along with the SLM transaction" said Mark Selby, President and CEO of RNC.

As announced by RNC in its news release datedMarch 7, 2016, a Preliminary Economic Assessment study ("PEA"), prepared as a NI 43-101 compliant Technical Report, for the Beta Hunt Mine (SLM's main asset) has been filed under RNC's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The Base case results (100% basis) from the PEA yielded a US$65 millionNPV8% (CDN$87 million). Each US$100/oz increase in the gold price increases NPV8% by US$14 million(CDN $19 million). 1, 2