Chalice Mining has released the results of a scoping study for its Gonneville Project, which outlines the potential to create a new long-life, low-cost, low-carbon green metals mine in Western Australia.
The Project is centred on the Gonneville Deposit, a significant greenfield orthomagmatic sulphide discovery by Chalice’s geologists in early 2020. The Gonneville Deposit is located on Chalice-owned farmland and the company is now aiming to develop it into a modern green metals mine, with world-class sustainability metrics.
Chalice’s freehold farmland covers an area of approximately 26km² and was acquired by the company between 2020 and 2023. The deposit is located on two granted Exploration Licences (E70/5118 and E70/5119) which give Chalice the exclusive right to apply for a Mining Licence. The two licences were originally staked by Chalice in 2018 and are 100 per cent owned.
The Gonneville Deposit hosts a rare mix of critical green metals required for urbanisation and decarbonisation, including nickel, copper, cobalt, palladium and platinum. These metals are essential for the production of decarbonisation technologies such as lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, large-scale energy storage solutions, wind power, solar power and green hydrogen.
Current production of these metals is dominated by Russia and South Africa.
Large-scale deposits like Gonneville are considered to be rare and therefore have high strategic value.
The study undertook two cases, which both have tier-one modelled metal production profiles:
- 15Mtpa case: approximately 280koz 3E, 9kt nickel (Ni), 10kt copper (Cu), 0.8kt cobalt (Co), average annual production over 19 years.
- 30Mtpa case: approximately 470koz 3E, 16kt nickel (Ni), 16kt copper (Cu), 1.4kt cobalt (Co), average annual production over 18 years.
Both cases incorporate a staged development approach, which reduces overall execution risk and allows for the efficient deployment of capital.
Given the scale and nature of the Gonneville Resource, the ability to expand the scale of the operation and drop the cut-off grade in future years is retained, providing optionality and leverage to future metal prices.
Chalice Managing Director and CEO, Alex Dorsch, said that the scoping study highlights an outstanding opportunity to develop a modern, long-life, Western Australian critical metals mine which, because of its scale, longevity and the mix of valuable green metals it is scoped to produce, represents a unique opportunity in the sector.
“Gonneville has the potential to deliver a large suite of metals which are essential to global decarbonisation and urbanisation,” Mr Dorsch said.
“Without the development of new strategic projects such as this, the world is forecast to fall short of net zero ambitions which rely on the rapid deployment of clean energy and electrification technologies.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the project team who have developed this high-quality study. This is a great first step in the studies phase which showcases the potential of our world-class green metals project and maps out a clear pathway to advance it towards development.”
