Chalice Mining has completed its pre-feasibility study for the Gonneville palladium-nickel-copper project in Western Australia, confirming that the project will become Australia’s first primary platinum group metals mine and second largest nickel mine.
The study positions Gonneville as a globally competitive critical minerals mine, set to generate AU$4.7 billion in free cashflow over an initial 23-year open-pit mine life, with a rapid payback of 2.7 years on AU$820 million in pre-production capital.
At spot prices, cumulative free cashflow could increase to AU$6.2 billion.
Chalice Mining estimates the mine will produce an average of 220,000 ounces per annum (kozpa) of 3E precious metals (palladium, platinum and gold), plus 7 kilo tonnes per annum (ktpa) of nickel, 8ktpa of copper and 0.7ktpa of cobalt.
The company noted that 50 per cent of the resources remain unmined below the modelled pit shell, providing exceptional upside potential.
Chalice Mining CEO Alex Dorsch said the pre-feasibility study is a major milestone for the miner and highlights its plans to develop a major critical mineral mine.
“The study demonstrates that Gonneville is viable and will generate solid returns, even at bottom of the cycle prices,” he said.
“The project development plan has been dramatically simplified, with a two-stage open-pit and conventional concentrator-leach process flowsheet, which with recent improvements and optimisations in the PFS have underpinned a low-risk and financially strong study.”
Gonneville could help diversify the global supply of critical minerals, which is currently supplied from Russia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The critical minerals to be produced at Gonneville are essential to several sectors, including defence, data centres and the auto sector.
“The large, diverse production profile of the mine, together with its scalability, points to further upside, particularly in volatile commodity price environments driven by the extreme scarcity of PGMs and the lack of large-scale base metal development projects worldwide,” Dorsch said.
“The metals to be produced are currently dominated by Russia, China, South Africa and Indonesia.
“Gonneville will help address this dominance and provide a secure and reliable supply chain from a new independent producer in the western world.”
A final investment decision is targeted for the first half of 2028.
Chalice Mining said it is fully funded, with AU$76 million in cash and listed investments, to reach that milestone.