Australian project developer Chalice Mining on Friday announced that it had reduced the size of its board and implemented additional targeted reductions in corporate overheads and project expenditures.

The reductions, Chalice said, would ensure the company remained in a strong position to advance its Gonneville project, in Western Australia and undertake targeted, value-add exploration activities.

The board of directors has been reduced from six to four members, to align and retain necessary core skillsets required to execute Chalice’s corporate strategy. Nonexecutive directors Linda Kenyon and Jo Gaines have tendered their resignations, effective August 31.

The company has also taken further action to progressively reduce its estimated monthly expenditure rate from ~A$2.4-million to A$1-million a month over the course of the next four months.

This reflects the planned completion of key metallurgical testwork and environmental modelling activities for Gonneville by the end of the 2024 calendar year.

The Gonneville prefeasibility study will continue to evaluate a staged, high-grade development scenario, with ongoing critical path workstreams, including metallurgical testwork, flowsheet development, geo-met domaining and regulatory approvals.

Gonneville is a critical minerals mine development, located on Chalice-owned farmland about 70 km north-east of Perth in the Wheatbelt region.

The resource hosts a rare mix of critical minerals required for decarbonisation and urbanisation, such as palladium, platinum, nickel, copper and cobalt.

Chalice noted that it had a strong balance sheet position with about A$111-million cash and listed investments.

The company also reported that it had approved a targeted exploration budget for the 2025 financial year across its 10 000 km² West Yilgarn licence holding, targeting new copper/gold targets as well as magmatic sulphide targets proximal to the Gonneville project. Drill programmes to test several high-priority target areas were expected to start in the December quarter, after the cropping season.