Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) has achieved a major breakthrough in the development of its Gonneville project in Western Australia – which hosts platinum grade elements (PGEs), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu) and cobalt (Co) – with metallurgical test work indicating two commercially viable concentrates can be produced from low-grade composites across the entire resource.

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This includes a Cu-PGE-Au concentrate grading 22-26% Cu, 45-60 grams per tonne (g/t) of 3E, and a Ni-Co-PGE concentrate grading 7.5-8.7% Ni, 0.8% Co, 18-20g/t 3E.

This means a complex and expensive hydrometallurgical process for this ore can be avoided for the Gonneville project.

Specifically, this will be unnecessary for the nickel concentrate; it significantly lessens technical risk, process complexity, and overall costs.

Chalice also found conventional CIL leaching could recover additional palladium and gold from the flotation tails, with recent optimisations resulting in significantly lower reagent consumption and operating costs relative to the 2023 Scoping Study.

The work is being done as part of the prefeasibility for Gonneville, which is expected to be complete by mid-2025.

Managing director and CEO Alex Dorsch said this was a major score for the company.

“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,” he said.

“This is the step change we have been hoping for over the last two years.

“Removing the need for a hydrometallurgical process materially reduces both the capital and operating costs and, together with the optimisations being introduced to the flowsheet, is expected to deliver a significant improvement in project margins across all high-grade and low-grade phases of a bulk open-pit mine plan.

“The simplified flowsheet also has much lower risk profile and gives the Project a smoother and more rapid pathway to development.”

Chalice has been trading at $1.20.

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