Investors can expect a stepped-up flow of news from Chalice Mining over the rest of 2023 as it starts the push towards the first mine on its 30-kilometre-long nickel, copper, palladium, gold, platinum and cobalt strike zone in WA.
The first mine will be at the Gonneville prospect were the company this week confirmed a resource of 550 million tonnes, containing 16 million ounces (Moz) of 3E (palladium, platinum and gold), 860,000 tonnes of nickel, 520,000 tonnes copper and 83,000 tonnes of cobalt.
But buried in this week’s announcement from Chalice was the first sign of an ambitious timetable for the future path of development and the company itself.
This makes quite It clear the end of this year could very well see two or three partners in the Gonneville mining project as well as the ore processing and refining and sales process.
Chalice could in fact look very different by year’s end as well as it talks to potential partners, pushing ahead with exploration, especially around the Gonneville prospect and to the north on several new areas, develops the scoping study and takes a stab at feasibility and financing studies.
CEO Alex Dorsch said in the little noticed comments “Our multi-pronged exploration campaign will therefore continue over the coming months as we work to unlock the full potential of the 30km long Julimar Complex.”
“This means that shareholders and stakeholders can look forward to several parallel news-flow streams in the months ahead – from ongoing development studies, from the strategic partnering process, and from ongoing exploration aimed at further expanding the Resource and unlocking new discoveries.”
“... there is enormous growth potential both at depth at Gonneville and along the effectively untested Julimar Complex to the north. While we already have a tier-1 scale deposit which has the potential to underpin a world-class, long-life green metals project, the Resource base is expected to continue to grow.”
“Because of the sheer size and quality of the resource and the significant level of inbound inquiries we have received from a range of downstream, trading and end-user parties, the board has decided to commence a formal strategic partnering process for the Julimar project,” Dorsch said.
“This process will consider a broad range of potential transactions with the aim of maximising shareholder value and will continue in parallel with the ongoing scoping study,” Dorsch said.
Chalice explained that it “continues to progress development studies for the Gonneville Deposit in parallel to initial exploration activities across the >30km long Julimar Complex”
“Given the growing scale of the Resource and in response to continued unsolicited strategic interest in the Project, Chalice intends to commence a formal strategic partnership process.
“Chalice anticipates that a strategic partner (or partners) with complementary technical, marketing and financial capability may assist with the development of Gonneville and influence the optimal development strategy to maximise shareholder value.
“Chalice has been engaging with a range of downstream, trading and end-user parties in relation to a potential minority joint venture partner (or partners) and will now broaden the engagement to include potential mining/operating partners.
“The partnering process will explore a broad range of transactions according to Chalice and partner preference, with the ultimate aim of maximising shareholder value. It is expected that the optimal development pathway for the project may be influenced by the nature of the partner, or partners, and transaction(s) and, in light of this, the strategic partnering process will continue in parallel with ongoing development studies.
“Development studies for the Julimar Project are advancing, with pre-feasibility level work already commencing on metallurgy and waste management. Given the significant increase in the Resource and ongoing metallurgical testwork assessing geo-metallurgical domains, these will be incorporated into the current studies and the Company will determine an expected completion timing in the next few months.”
To these ends, Chalice has quietly restructured itself in recent months.
In mid-March, the company revealed that long-time Chief Financial Officer Richard Hacker has been appointed to the newly-created role of General Manager – Strategy and Commercial, with a specific focus on strategic partnering options for the 100%-owned Julimar Project in WA. Chalice said he will also lead business development activities with a continued focus on the new West Yilgarn Ni-Cu-PGE Province in WA.
He will be succeeded by Chris MacKinnon, who has been Chalice’s Business Development and Legal Manager since 2020. “Under the role of CFO, Mr MacKinnon will also work closely with the Managing Director and CEO on investor relations and external communications,” according to the company.
These two changes followed the key appointment in mid-January of experienced mining executive Mike Nelson to the newly-created role of General Manager – Project Development.
Chalice said he “will lead all aspects of the studies and development of the Julimar Nickel-Copper-Platinum Group Element (PGE) Project in Western Australia, with his appointment marking another important step in the Company’s advancement of its world-class, green metals asset.”
This means that CEO Alex Dorsch now has a team to oversee the multi-pronged operations of the company and its progress in bringing Gonneville into production.
After Gonneville, there are the Hartog and Dampier prospects.
Chalice says the Hartog is assumed to be a continuation of the Gonneville prospect that has been disrupted by a fault. Two holes have been drilled into the Hartog area with assays pending.
“The updated Resource for Gonneville is interpreted to cover just 7% of the 30km long Julimar Complex. 100 drill holes have now been completed along the Hartog-Hooley-Dampier target areas across ~10km of strike length, with several significant results already reported. Assays remain pending for 42 of these holes, Chalice said.
