Ardea Resources Ltd (ASX:ARL) has upgraded the total resource at its KNP Cobalt Zone near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to 108.3 million tonnes at 0.10 % cobalt and 0.79 % nickel.
The project now includes over 108,000 tonnes of contained cobalt and over 856,000 tonnes of nickel.
The increased tonnages are from the company’s prime development project, Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project (GNCP), within the KNP Cobalt Zone.
Updated cobalt-nickel resource for Goongarrie
The updated resource at Goongarrie is 83.1 million tonnes at 0.10 % cobalt and 0.81 % nickel for 81,700 tonnes of contained cobalt and 672,300 tonnes of contained nickel.
This includes resources at Goongarrie South, Big Four and Scotia Dam which occur within a continuous mineralised zone extending over 16 kilometres in strike length and over 1 kilometre wide.
Pre-feasibility study finalisation progressing
The significant increase in resource will support Ardea’s revenue based mine scheduling, as part of its pre-feasibility study (PFS).
Mine scheduling on a revenue basis means that it is largely irrelevant whether it is cobalt or nickel that is providing the maximum return.
It does not matter if, for example, a mine block contains subgrade cobalt if the nickel grade is sufficiently high – the block will be mined.