Improvements in the nickel market have spurred
Chesbar’s consultants will now estimate capital costs for an operation that produces 20,000 tonnes nickel and 800 tonnes cobalt annually. That is double the size of the operation Chesbar previously envisaged.
The study, by Hatch Ltd., is evaluating an atmospheric-pressure chloride leach process, different from the existing technologies that have been applied to nickel laterite ores, smelting and high-pressure sulphuric acid leaching. The atmospheric acid-leach (AAL) process would produce a mixed nickel-cobalt hydroxide product with a magnesium oxide byproduct.
The atmospheric-pressure system would obviate the need for expensive high-pressure reactor vessels in the process, and its chemistry is not as sensitive to the iron or magnesium content of the feed.
Early testing on the process by metallurgical testing firm Process Research Oretech has put nickel recovery above 95%, with low (under 5%) leaching of iron from the laterite.
Sechol, a 15-sq.-km property in the Lago de Izabal area, about 170 km northeast of Guatemala City, has a measured and indicated resource of 37 million tonnes grading 1.38% nickel and 0.08% cobalt, with another 133 million tonnes grading 1.5% nickel in the inferred category. Other zones of laterite are known to exist, and the company plans to evaluate the resource further.
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