Shares prices for Pure Nickel, Inc. (TSX: NIC, OTCBB: PNCKF) doubled from Monday’s closing price of 15 cents a share to 30 cents on Tuesday, after the company announced it had commenced drilling on the MAN Alaska project.

Yesterday Pure Nickel released an update on drilling activites, which began on June 4th, for nickel on the MAN Alaska project, and also provided progress reports for Rockcliff Resources’ Tower project in Manitoba for copper, as well as reporting that it has staked new claims at the Rainbow project, Nunavut for gold.

Pure Nickel, and its project partner, ITOCHU Corporation of Tokyo, have both pledged to spend $7.5 million towards MAN Alaska, representing a 70 percent increase over $4.4 million budgeted for 2009. The MAN Alaska 2010 summer drilling program is expected to complete approximately 8,000 metres. The program will employ two fly drills drilling concurrently for most of the program. The first drill started turning on the Beta complex and the second will begin on the Alpha complex in mid-June.

Pure Nickel President and CEO, David McPherson commented, “As a result of the successful 2009 program we have identified high priority targets on both Alpha and Beta complexes for this summer’s program. Significant new perspectives have been developed from our geophysical work which included deployment of the ZTEM or Z-Axis Tipper Electromagnetic system, and extensive use of a new technology, Fluxgate Ground TEM.”

Since the end of the 2009 program, Pure Nickel has invested in advanced 3-D imaging software allowing the company to develop new 3-D models for the MAN project. These models are proving invaluable in increasing our understanding of the apparently deeply placed mineral anomalies hosted on the MAN property.