Diamond drilling unveils high-grade nickel for Ardea

Ardea Resources says results from diamond drilling at its Goongarrie Hill nickel-cobalt deposit closely match mineralisation models used to generate its mineral resource estimate, providing confidence for a mass excavation nickel laterite mining operation.

Drilling confirmed high-grade, near-surface nickel-cobalt mineralisation with one hole going 38m at 0.85 per cent nickel and 0.057 per cent cobalt from 2m including 18m at 1.12 per cent nickel and 0.09 per cent cobalt from 4m.

Another hole recorded 18m at 1.16 per cent nickel and 0.059 per cent cobalt from 2m including 14m at 1.22 per cent nickel and 0.067 per cent cobalt from 6m.

Goongarrie Hill forms part of Ardea’s Goongarrie Hub nickel-cobalt project that also incorporates Goongarrie South.

The company says pits at Goongarrie Hill will be the key atmospheric leach base load feed source for the proposed nickel-cobalt processing plant at the Kalgoorlie nickel project – Goongarrie Hub.

The drilling program was based on acquiring representative run-of-mine material types for the current ALS Balcatta bench-scale metallurgical program.

Ardea says the diamond core drilling program has confirmed a consistent sheet geometry for the run-of-mine mineralisation and is suited to open pit bulk excavation.

With the unique Goongarrie geological model yet again confirmed, we continue to await the results of the ALS benchscale metallurgy from Highway, as a control for the waiting Goongarrie South and Goongarrie Hill programs. These results will feed into ongoing DFS workflows and continue to enhance the KNP Goongarrie Hub as a globally significant source of sustainable and ethical ESG-compliant nickel-cobalt for the lithium ion battery sector.

The Goongarrie Hill strategy is to have a pit in proximity to Goongarrie South that is readily available as a shallow source of atmospheric leach feed at times when the latter’s operation schedule is deficient.

Ardea says once the ALS metallurgical test work program and beneficiation studies are completed, the information will be used to complete the definitive feasibility study resource optimisation, mine plan and detailed schedule to enable an updated Kalgoorlie nickel project-Goongarrie Hub ore reserve to be defined.

In March, Ardea was awarded major project status by the Federal Government at its Kalgoorlie nickel project, a decision that could help the developer haul its hefty bag of battery metals to market.

The company says the project hosts the largest nickel-cobalt resource in the developed world, coming in at 830 million tonnes of ore grading 0.71 per cent nickel and 0.046 per cent cobalt.

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