North American Nickel Inc. Commences 2012 Exploration Program at its Maniitsoq Ni-Cu-PGE Project, Southwest Greenland

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 06/26/12 -- North American Nickel Inc. (TSX VENTURE: NAN)(OTCBB: WSCRF) (CUSIP: 65704T 108). North American Nickel ("NAN") is pleased to announce that field operations have now begun at its 100% owned Maniitsoq project in southwest Greenland.

A helicopter-borne, Versatile Time-Domain EM (VTEM) survey commenced last week and is being conducted by Geotech Ltd. of Aurora, Ontario. The survey is focused on the highly prospective Greenland Norite Belt (GNB) where historical drilling intersected high grade nickel sulphide mineralization (e.g. 9.85 m of sulphide mineralization averaging 2.67% Ni and 0.60% Cu in drill hole Im-9).

North American Nickel CEO, Rick Mark, states, "I am very pleased to see exploration begin at Maniitsoq. We have experienced some delays this month due to logistic and technical issues, but, the helicopter is now on the job. Our flying program last year showed that modern technology works in the GNB. We are all looking forward to more targets being defined and starting our initial drill campaign later this summer."

The survey will total over 3,000 line-kilometres and, together with last year's SkyTEM survey, will provide near complete helicopter TEM coverage of the entire GNB within the company's land holdings. Surveying will also be done over selected targets outside the main GNB.

Electromagnetic anomalies detected by the 2012 VTEM survey together with those identified by last fall's SkyTEM survey will be field checked and the highest priority ones will be drilled later this summer. Drilling is now expected to begin in mid-August.

More details on Maniitsoq, and other North American Nickel projects, may be found on the company's website www.northamericannickel.com.

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 26M shares of NAN.

The Maniitsoq property in Greenland is a district scale project. It comprises a 4,983 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 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.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

North American Nickel Inc.

Rick Mark

CEO and Chair

604-986-2020 or Toll free: 1-866-816-0118
www.northamericannickel.com