Name of the Project
Gonneville palladium/nickel/copper project.

Location
About 70 km north-east from Perth, in Western Australia.

Project Owner/s
Explorer and developer Chalice Mining.

Project Description
Gonneville is set to become Australia’s first primary platinum group metals (PGMs) mine and second-largest nickel mine, producing an average of 220 000 oz/y of palladium, platinum and gold, or 3E, and about 7-million tonnes a year of nickel, 8-million tonnes a year of copper and 700 000 t/y of cobalt.  The development plan involves building an openpit mine, processing plant and supporting infrastructure in two stages. Stage 1 has been scoped for the lowest capital cost, maximum rate of return and shortest capital payback period.

This stage proposes four years of higher-grade and -margin openpit mining, processing oxide at one-million tonnes a year and sulphide at four-million tonnes a year in parallel using a conventional crush/grind/flotation, leach process plant. The Stage 2 expansion has been optimised for optimal strategic value, mine life and profitability through the price cycle.  From Year 5 to Year 23, a long-life, bulk openpit mining phase is envisaged, processing oxide at one-million tonnes a year and sulphide at 12-million tonnes a year.

Debottlenecking the process plant will be completed post-oxide feed exhaustion in Year 9 to allow for an ultimate 14-million-tonne-a-year sulphide process throughput rate. 

Stage 1 (years 1 to 4) is expected to produce about 151 000 oz/y 3E, 3 200 t/y of nickel, 5 200 t/y of copper and 300 t/y of cobalt. 

Stage 2 (years 5 to 23) is expected to produce 238 000 oz/y 3E, 7 700 t/y of nickel, 8 700 t/y of copper and 700 t/y of copper.

Potential Job Creation
The project is expected to directly create about 1 200 jobs during peak construction and about 500 jobs a year in operation.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of A$1.4-billion, increasing to A$2-billion at spot and an internal rate of return of 23%, increasing to 29% at spot. Stage 1 payback is estimated at 2.7 years, which reduces to 2.4 years at spot. Spot prices are noted at $1 500/oz – palladium, $1660/oz – platinum, $4 250/oz – gold, $14 900/t – nickel, $12 050/t – copper, $49 500/t – cobalt, TCRCs $40/t – copper concentrate, $4c/lb – nickel concentrate, with a nickel payability of 76%, highlighting exceptional margins.

Capital Expenditure
Preproduction capital costs are estimated at A$820-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Following a final investment decision (FID), a 1.5- to 2-year engineering and construction phase is expected, resulting in first production in early 2030.

Latest Developments
Chalice is now progressing the development plan into a bankable feasibility study (BFS). The BFS will optimise the design and undertake detailed engineering to prepare the project for a final investment decision on Stage 1, in the first half of 2028.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Cube Consulting (mining and geological consultants); Dempers and Seymour (openpit geotechnical investigations); Auralia Metallurgy and Strategic Metallurgy, A Farghaly (metallurgy); GR Engineering Services, NewPro and Ausenco (process engineering); L&MGSPL, CMW, AQ2 and Geoanalytica (tailings storage); Western Power, ECG Engineering and Accenture (power supply); Qube Logistics and NMT Logistics (transport and logistics); Graeme Campbell & Associates and SRK (waste characterisation); Water Corporation and Fortin Pipelines (water supply); Biologic, Syrinx, and GHD (environmental studies); Dortch Cuthbert and Garwood Consulting (heritage and native title); Voconiq (Social and community studies); Chalice ( risk, health and safety); Rob Aird, John Clout and Warwick Davies (marketing); and Enthalpy (third-party reviewers).

Contact Details for Project Information
Chalice, tel +61 8 9322 3960 or email info@chalicemining.com.