North American Nickel Acquiring Additional Ground in the Greenland Norite Belt at Maniitsoq Project

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - March 1, 2012) - North American Nickel Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NAN)(OTCBB:WSCRF)(CUSIP: 65704T 108). North American Nickel ("NAN") is pleased to announce that it has received notification that its application for an exploration licence covering 142 square kilometres in the centre of the highly prospective Greenland Norite Belt (GNB) has been approved by the Greenland Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (see Image 1). It is expected that the new licence will be issued within approximately one month.

This new licence area contains numerous norite intrusions and several nickel sulphide occurrences and is contiguous with NAN's existing licence. It brings the company's total land holdings at Maniitsoq to 4,983 square kilometres. The new licence is strategically located in the centre of the nickeliferous GNB and includes the following three showings discovered by Kyrolitselskabet Øresund A/S (KØ) between 1965 and 1972:

• Kajortoq - a 750 by 350 m exposure of gabbronorite with local accumulations of sulphide along its margins. Mineralized grab samples collected by KØ in 1966 assayed up to 2.50% Ni.
• Kitâta Taserssuatiâ - numerous outcrops of noritic rocks that locally contain disseminated sulphides and occasionally small pods of heavier mineralization. Surface grab samples collected by KØ in 1967 assayed up to 2.36% Ni.
• Sikolik - outcrops of norite occur over a 1200 by 500 meter area and locally contain disseminated sulphides. In 1972 KØ drilled three shallow holes totalling just 140 meters to test EM (VLF and slingram) anomalies over rusty norite. All three holes intersected disseminated sulphide mineralization and the best assay was 2.92 meters averaging 0.38% Ni and 0.11% Cu.

NAN CEO, Rick Mark states: "We are extremely pleased that North American Nickel has secured the centre of the highly prospective Greenland Nickel Belt, The new area's showings are consistent with the already tested areas of the belt and we expect helicopter borne EM surveys will produce targets for future drilling."

To view Image 1 please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/NANImage1.pdf

Qualified Person

All technical information in this release has been reviewed by Dr. Mark Fedikow, P.Geo, who is the Qualified Person for the Company and President and Chief Operating Officer, North American Nickel Inc.

About North American Nickel

North American Nickel is a mineral exploration company with 100% owned properties in Maniitsoq, Greenland, Sudbury, Ontario, and the Thompson, Manitoba nickel belt. VMS Ventures Inc. (TSX VENTURE:VMS) owns ~45% of NAN.

The Maniitsoq property in Greenland is district scale project. It is a, 4,841 square km mineral exploration licence covering numerous high-grade nickel-copper sulphide occurrences associated with norite and other mafic-ultramafic intrusions. The 70km plus long belt is situated along, and near, the southwest coast of Greenland, which is ice free year round.

The Post Creek/Halycon property in Sudbury is strategically located adjacent to the producing Podolsky copper-nickel-platinum group metal deposit of Quadra FNX Mining. The property lies along the extension of the Whistle Offset dyke structure. Such geological structures host major Ni-Cu-PGM deposits and producing mines within the Sudbury Camp.

The Bell Lake property in Sudbury is a 256-acre property that covers approximately one kilometre of the Mystery Offset dyke or MOD. The MOD is interpreted to be an extension of the Worthington Offset dyke which hosts the new Totten Mine of Vale and the exciting Victoria Deep deposit of Quadra FNX.

The Company has 100% ownership in the high-grade Ni-Cu-PGE South Bay property near Thompson, Manitoba and the large grassroots Thompson North and Cedar Lake properties, which are part of the world-class Thompson Nickel Belt in Manitoba.

Statements about the Company's future expectations and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are "forward looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and as that term defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbours created thereby. Since these statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, the Company's actual results may differ materially from the expected results.