Ardea Resources Limited (ASX: ARL) is pushing towards a Final Agreement in its negotiations with a Japanese Consortium comprised of Sumimoto Metal Mining Company and Mitsubishi Corporation, for development of the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP) in Western Australia.
The two parties signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) in July last year, and have been working towards the Final, or ‘Cooperation’ Agreement, which will define conditions for a cluster of development activities at the project, including a definitive feasibility study (DFS) which will be funded by both.
Also factored into the agreement will be front-end engineering design and pre-commitment activities, with Ardea and the Consortium set to progress from there to a Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Goongarrie Hub of the KNP.
Most recently, it has been decided that the period for negotiating the Cooperation Agreement should be extended to April 2024.
The two parties have already completed scoping for definitive feasibility study (DFS), agreed the budget for this study and made assessments of vendor bids. Having consulted with the Consortium, Ardea has also begun early works on the project such as geo-metallurgy of ore feeds and aspects of environmental monitoring.
Goongarrie Hub is a sub-set of the KNP, and together they are noted to comprise nickel-cobalt deposits whose resource is the largest in the developed world, at 854 million tonnes 0.71 percent nickel and 0.045 percent cobalt for 6.1Mt of contained nickel and 386 kilo tonnes of contained cobalt.
Ardea is trading at 72c.