West Australian developer Ardea Resources has underlined its ambitions for its Goongarrie project as the commencement point for a long-life critical minerals supply operation 70km N of Kalgoorlie with a resource update confirming it as one of the developed world’s largest and most strategic nickel-cobalt deposits.
The measured, indicated and inferred resource of 60Mt @ 1% for 595,000t Ni and 0.07% for 44,000t Co, at 0.8% Ni cutoff, includes a maiden scandium component of 74Mt @ 35ppm and strong aluminium credits. MD Andrew Penkethman says significant manganese credits offer potential to produce precursor cathode active material for use in lithium-ion batteries.
The GNCP update lifts the contained metal resource at Ardea’s 100%-owned Kalgoorlie nickel project to 826Mt @ 0.7% for 5.82Mt Ni and 0.05% for 384,000t Co at 0.5% Ni cutoff.