Sustainable Long-life Battery Metal Resource Confirmed In WA
Ardea (ASX: ARL) has unveiled an updated JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) completed for the Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project (GNCP) in Western Australia.
The GNCP is planned to be a high quality, long-life operation, with multi- commodity optionality. The GNCP forms part of the broader Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP), which Ardea owns 100% and is located within one of the world’s most infrastructure-rich and stable mining jurisdictions.
Managing Director, Andrew Penkethman, said the KNP, commencing with the GNCP can play a critical role as a long-life, sustainable, and ethical supply of nickel, cobalt and associated Critical Minerals for the expanding battery industry.
“The GNCP R&D product studies and resource update is the culmination of 12 months’ work and demonstrates that the GNCP is one of the largest and most strategic nickel-cobalt deposits in the developed world,” Mr Penkethman said.
“With the GNCP located 70km north of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the 25km long line of resources on granted mining leases, the project is strategically positioned to provide sustainable and ethical mineral supply in the premier mining jurisdiction in the world, Western Australia.
“Most importantly for future project development, using a 0.8% nickel cut-off grade, the MRE is 60 million tonnes at 1% nickel with strong cobalt, scandium and aluminium credits. This is a significant project advancement.
“The company is targeting leach feed grades to a 2Mtpa High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) plant exceeding 1% nickel for 25 years. Ardea uniquely within Australian laterites has resource optionality due to the large size and exceptional quality of the KNP resources for mine high grading and selective recovery of key geo- metallurgical mineralisation types.
“The GNCP also has significant manganese credits and thus has potential for Precursor Cathode Active Material (PCAM) for use in lithium-ion batteries (LIB). Of significance, the nickel-cobalt-manganese for use in NCM811 cathodes – 8 parts nickel, 1 part cobalt and 1 part manganese – approximates the KNP in-ground metal ratio.”
The Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project (GNCP) is located 70km north of the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and is Ardea’s most advanced development project, within the broader Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP). The GNCP resources extend over 25km of strike and are located on granted mining leases within a single consolidated operation with Native Title Agreement in place and tenure controlled 100% by Ardea. The project also has ready access to high quality infrastructure with the Goldfields Highway, rail line and power infrastructure passing through the project area (Figure 2-1), with two port options (Esperance and Kwinana) serviced by the road and rail network and mobile phone/optic fibre coverage. The Goldfields Gas Transmission pipeline is located 30km east (also “green” energy options). The conceptual plan is to commission a single train 2 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) operation at Goongarrie, treating goethite ore with no requirement for screen upgrade or aging the ore. The goethite mineralogy with its premium rheology and low acid-consumption mitigates perceived HPAL project risk.
For the past 12 months, the KNP has undergone a series of high-grade nickel optimisations for >1% Ni plant feed options, “desk-top” by-product metallurgical studies including scandium and ensured that all mineral resource estimation uses uniform methodologies.
A review of the full KNP high-grade nickel Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) has commenced, with initial completion of the Goongarrie area, hosting continuous nickel mineralisation from Goongarrie Hill in the north, to Goongarrie South, Big Four and finally Scotia Dam in the south.
Ardea has continued to build value in the KNP with its systematic Research and Development (R&D) programmfs aimed at delineating a long-life sustainable battery metal development project focussed on nickel.
The major means of effecting the R&D has been to re-assay the archived drill assay pulps for Ardea’s 58 element Critical Minerals assay suite. To re-assay the full archival collection would cost in excess of A$5 million, so the methodology is to select pulps on the basis of their specific R&D objectives and incorporate any by-product data as it manifests.
