Name of the Project
Goongarrie nickel/cobalt project.

Location
The Goongarrie project covers an area of 142 km² in the larger Kalgoorlie nickel project, which totals an estimated 1 738 km², in Western Australia.

Client
Ardea Resources.

Project Description
A prefeasibility study (PFS) has confirmed the project as robust, highly scalable and capable of generating exceptional returns.

The PFS has considered production levels of one-million tonnes a year (base case) and 1.5-million tonnes a year over 25 years. The one-million-tonne-a-year base case represents a lower capital expenditure starter option that is readily expandable for greater throughput by the installation of additional modular processing trains. The production levels considered are viable on a standalone process train design basis.

The Goongarrie South and Big Four deposits on which the ore reserves are based lend themselves to simple openpit mining with minimal dilution. The schedule assumes the development of 13 separate openpits, with mining being undertaken by conventional open-pit methods, using truck and excavator fleets. The flowsheet comprises a proven fifth-generation pressure acid leach process with mixed sulphide precipitation, resulting in the highly efficient extraction of cobalt and nickel from Goongarrie ore to produce cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate for the battery industry. The base case envisages the production of 5 500 t/y of cobalt sulphate and 41 500 t/y of nickel sulphate.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The base case has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of A$1.43-billion and an internal rate of return of 29%, with a payback of 5.3 years.

Value
Forecast preproduction capital is estimated at A$598.57-million.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
This PFS has been completed to a high degree of detail, meeting accepted industry prefeasibility requirements and, as such, sets a strong foundation to advance the project to definitive feasibility, funding, a development decision, construction and production by 2022.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Ardea Resources, tel +61 8 6244 5136 or email ardea@ardearesources.com.au.