Vancouver — Weda Bay Minerals (WDA-T) has tabled new resource estimates for the Pintu and Santa Monica deposits on its Halmahera nickel-cobalt property in Indonesia.
Located on the eastern part of the property, the Pintu deposit hosts an indicated resource of 19 million dry tonnes grading 1.35% nickel and 0.11% cobalt. The new estimate was based on 73 drill holes and utilized a cut-off of 1% nickel and 0.1% cobalt.
Moving some 7 km to the west, the Santa Monica deposit now hosts an indicated and inferred resource of 72.6 million dry tonnes averaging 1.41% nickel and 0.1% cobalt. This marks an 8% decrease in tonnage over the previous calculation.
Over the entire property, the indicated resource came in 13% higher at 150.9 million dry tonnes grading 1.4% nickel and 0.1% cobalt.
Weda Bay recently tabled metallurgical test work aimed at improving the project economics. The metallurgical tests confirmed that the saprolite resources could be mined in unison with the limonite reserves. Recoveries from the saprolite hit up to 95% for both nickel and cobalt. The junior is considering two approaches for utilizing the saprolite ore. The first is to use it to neutralize excess acid in the high-pressure acid-leach (HPAL) pulp, reducing the need for limestone as well as recovering the metals. The second is through direct atmospheric leaching in a separate circuit.
The study envisions peak production occurring in years three to five, in each of which 52,600 tonnes nickel and 5,1000 cobalt would be produced. Operating costs, exclusive of cobalt credits, are pegged at US97 per lb. nickel.
In July, the company stopped fieldwork on the project after its major shareholder and project financier voiced concerns about business uncertainty in the country. The OM Group (OMG-N), with a 19.9% stake in Weda Bay, decided to stop advancing funds for the nickel laterite project because it believes that under the current market condition project financing to put the deposit into production would be difficult to raise. As a result, the Halmahera project has been put on care and maintenance.
Weda Bay was moving towards a bankable feasibility study. The US$18-million study was being funded by the OM Group.
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