Ardea Resources Drills High-Grade Nickel-Cobalt at Goongarrie Hill

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) has confirmed high-grade near surface nickel-cobalt mineralisation via diamond drill core drilling at the Goongarrie Hill nickel-cobalt deposit within the company’s Kalgoorlie Nickel project in Western Australia.

Ardea Resources said the results it has received very closely validate mineralisation models it used in generating the Goongarrie Hill Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).

The Goongarrie Hub MRE at a 0.5 per cent nickel cut-off grade is 556 million tonnes at 0.68 per cent nickel and 0.045 per cent cobalt for contained metal of 3.8 million tonnes of nickel and 248,000 tonnes of cobalt.

Ardea explained the 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.

Latest drilling results at 0.5 per cent nickel and 1 per cent nickel cut-off grades include:

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38 metres at 0.85 per cent nickel and 0.057 per cent cobalt from 2m, including 18m at 1.12 per cent nickel and 0.095 per cent cobalt from 4m; and

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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.

“The Goongarrie Hill core drilling was a further field test of the KNP low-carbon flowsheet model,” Ardea Resources managing director Andrew Penkethman said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“In contrast to Goongarrie South, Goongarrie Hill lacks the intense weathering associated with the Bardoc Tectonic Zone and ancestral Lake Goongarrie hydrology.

“None-the-less, premium High Pressure Acid Leach feed still occurred at Goongarrie Hill above an extensive and more uniform sheet of high-magnesium mineralisation well suited as an Atmospheric Leach feed.

“In terms of Mineralised Neutraliser, the neutraliser at Goongarrie Hill appears to be a sheet below the Atmospheric Leach feed.

“In a production situation, this material will be mined from grade control drilling and ‘goodbye cuts’.

“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 work flows 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.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Email: ardea@ardearesources.com.au

 

Web: www.ardearesources.com.au