Chalice Mining Achieves Major Metallurgical Breakthrough at Gonneville Project

Chalice Mining has made a metallurgical breakthrough at its Gonneville project in Western Australia, allowing for the production of two saleable, smelter-grade flotation concentrates without the need for a hydrometallurgical process. This reduces capital and operating costs, technical risk, and process complexity. The company is currently working on a prefeasibility study for Gonneville, with completion targeted in mid-2025. Chalice has AU$90 million in cash and listed investments.

Chalice Mining (ASX: CHN) has made a significant stride in the development of its Gonneville project in Western Australia with a recent metallurgical breakthrough. This advancement has the potential to simplify the project's processing and reduce costs, making it an even more attractive investment opportunity [1].

The company's exceptional test work results have demonstrated the ability to produce two saleable, smelter-grade flotation concentrates across the entire Gonneville sulphide resource. The first concentrate, grading 22-26% copper, 45-60g/t palladium, gold, and other 3E elements, is a copper-palladium-gold (Cu-PGE-Au) concentrate. The second concentrate, grading 7.5-8.7% nickel, 0.8% cobalt, 18-20g/t palladium, gold, and other 3E elements, is a nickel-cobalt-palladium-gold (Ni-Co-PGE) concentrate [1].

Alex Dorsch, Chalice's managing director and CEO, expressed his excitement about this development: "The ability to produce a saleable nickel concentrate across the grade spectrum of the entire Gonneville Resource is a major breakthrough and fundamentally simplifies the world-class Gonneville Project. This is the step change we have been hoping for over the last two years" [1].

Moreover, the company's recent optimizations in conventional cyanide-in-leach (CIL) leaching have resulted in reduced reagent consumption and operating costs relative to the 2023 scoping study [1]. This means the project will not require a hydrometallurgical process for the nickel concentrate, which substantially reduces technical risk, process complexity, and capital and operating costs.

Chalice Mining's strong financial position further solidifies its potential for success. The company boasts A$90 million in cash and listed investments [1].

As the company moves forward with the pre-feasibility study (PFS) for Gonneville, with completion targeted in mid-2025 [1], investors can look forward to more updates on this exciting development.

References:
[1] The Assay. (2023, February 15). Chalice Mining Announces Major Metallurgical Breakthrough at Gonneville. https://www.theassay.com/news/chalice-mining-announces-major-metallurgical-breakthrough-at-gonneville/