Western Australian Premier Roger Cook has awarded strategic project status to the Gonneville project, which has the potential to produce a rare mix of critical and strategic minerals, such as nickel, copper, cobalt, palladium and platinum.

Owned by ASX-listed Chalice Mining, the project is currently in prefeasibility study stage, with regulatory approvals under way in parallel.

Strategic project status under the lead agency prioritisation framework is designed to focus the efforts of government towards those projects that need to proceed first to deliver on the state’s decarbonisation and economic diversification agenda.

The green energy major projects group within the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation will assume lead agency responsibility for the project and provide a high level of project facilitation, including for regulatory approvals and infrastructure requirements.

In addition to this support, environmental approvals for the project will be subject to assessment through the new green energy assessment unit. This dedicated team within the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation is tasked with supporting the Environmental Protection Authority to facilitate the streamlined assessment of projects such as Gonneville.

“Chalice is pleased to receive this formal recognition and support from the Western Australian government, demonstrating the strategic importance of Gonneville as the first major platinum group element (PGE) discovery in Australia, and one of the largest critical and strategic minerals projects in the state,” said CEO and MD Alex Dorsch.

The 100%-owned Gonneville PGE/nickel/copper/cobalt project is located on Chalice-owned farmland, about 70 km north-east of Perth in Western Australia. The greenfield project was staked in early 2018 as part of Chalice’s global search for high-potential nickel sulphide exploration opportunities.

Large-scale critical and strategic mineral resources like Gonneville are rare in the Western world, with current global production of palladium, platinum, nickel and cobalt dominated by Russia, South Africa, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.