Maiden Mineral Resource for nickel & cobalt at the Marela Project in Guinea
Highlights
• A maiden Mineral Resource Estimate for nickel and cobalt reporting 27.15 million tonnes at 0.81% Ni and 0.08% Co in the Inferred category using a cut-off grade of 0.53% Ni
• 219,900 tonnes of contained nickel metal
• Low strip ratio of 0.5
Commenting on the MRE, Charles Douglas-Hamilton, Technical Director of ORL, said: ‘‘An MRE of nearly 30 million tonnes of 0.81% nickel marks a significant milestone in advancing and de-risking the Marela Project. We continue to focus on assessing the optimal pathway to project development. In due course we look forward to updating shareholders and investors on progress being made with the Scoping Study that is being worked on by Hatch.’’
Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate for Nickel-Cobalt
Wardell Armstrong International has completed an independent Mineral Resource Estimate for nickel-cobalt on the Marela Project with an inferred resource in the lateritised dunites of 27.15 million tonnes at 0.81% Ni and 0.08% Co using a cut-off grade of 0.53% Ni. Pit optimisations were constrained using parameters defined by Hatch who have been engaged by ORL to do the Front-End-Loading (FEL 1) Scoping Study for the Marela Project. Using Datamine’s Studio NPV Scheduler to test different mining scenarios, Wardell Armstrong optimised a pit over the weathered dunites. The Mineral Resource is reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012).
The MRE defined a low strip ratio of 0.5 with 28.8 million tonnes of ore and 14.32 million tonnes of waste as a result of the nickel and cobalt mineralisation being found at or near surface in the lateritised dunites. The tonnage generated by the MRE is larger than had originally been anticipated due to greater vertical thicknesses of weathered dunites and mineralised drill hole intersections. Nickel and cobalt mineralisation have been observed in some drill hole intersections over a length of more than 40 vertical meters. Most of the nickel mineralisation is well above the cut-off grade. The MRE for nickel and cobalt did not include scandium which would have enhanced pit shell economics.
Demand for nickel is expected to stay strong as the ramp up in production of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles continues. With a contained nickel metal content of 219,900 tonnes the project contains US$ 4.4 billion of nickel in the ground using a nickel price of US$20,000 per tonne. Going forward ORL will assess the optimum processing route for the nickel and cobalt.
A Mineral Resource Estimate for Vanadium-Titanium Requires more Test-Work
ORL had wanted to produce an MRE for titanium and vanadium. However, evaluating the pyroxenites for vanadium-titanium has been complex because of several stages of processing required to produce final saleable products. Typically, ilmenite concentrates, magnetite concentrates or final products such as vanadium pentoxide and synthetic rutile are traded on international markets. Markets and prices for mixed ilmenite-magnetite concentrates and vanadium-titanium bearing slag are not as well defined.
ORL is focused on producing a mixed magnetite-ilmenite concentrate which can subsequently be processed into final saleable products through different stages of pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processing. Without detailed mineral processing test-work data at all stages of the process from mined ore to final saleable products it has been difficult to generate pit optimisation parameters on well-defined assumptions in order to define a pit shell and complete a mineral resource estimate. Further test work is needed to optimise the best way to process the pyroxenites for vanadium, titanium and scandium. Ongoing mineral processing test work on a 20-tonne bulk sample in India will help close these data gaps. If this work demonstrates that an economic pit-shell can be defined for an MRE it opens up the potential for developing the hard rock pyroxenites which have a tonnage in excess of 100 million tonnes.
Significant Potential for Scandium
Historical assays show that there is significant scandium potential in the lateritised pyroxenites which should be confirmed in the coming weeks by ORL. The market value for scandium in December 2022 is US$ 3.8 million per tonne. ORL will assess different mining development scenarios and options to extract scandium from the lateritised pyroxenites and the lateritised dunites to increase value to the overall project.
Information in this report relating to the Mineral Resource Estimate has been reviewed by Greg Moseley, an independent Competent Person as defined by JORC who signed off on the MRE.