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OPERATIONAL REVIEW
DIGGeRs & DeALeRs PReVIeW MACA.NET.AU

Chalice leaves a forest trail

for others to follow

obalt troughs, nickel spikes and Having made the discovery in March Hartog and Dampier, two of the highest
Cplatinum surges – it feels like Chal- 2020, by November 2021, Chalice had quality EM conductors along the belt.
ice Mining Ltd has experienced an entire produced a maiden resource for the Gon- While the permitting issue has been re-
commodities cycle in just two years since neville deposit of 330mt @ 0.84 g/t plat- solved, Dorsch said it was likely Gonnev-
making the Julimar discovery near Perth. inum-palladium-gold, 0.16% nickel, 0.1% ille would remain the focus of starter op-
The multi-metal project is set for its first copper and 0.016% cobalt for a contained erations regardless of what other targets
economic assessment this year when 10 moz 3E, 530,000t nickel, 330,000t cop- produce.
Chalice releases a scoping study in the per and 53,000t cobalt. “Gonneville is sitting on farmland owned
September quarter. And while spot prices The initial resource sits across a 1.9km by Chalice so it’s logically the place to
are bound to have an influence on the portion of what is interpreted to be a 26km start,” he explained. “The studies are likely
numbers, managing director Alex Dorsch strike length. With recent approval to con- to be upgraded and adapted as the re-
said they wouldn’t sway the company’s duct drilling further to the north, Dorsch is source grows but we wouldn’t rip it up and
strategy. confident of expanding those figures sev- start again, although it depends on what
“It is a very dynamic price market for eral times yet. we hit in the forest, both at Gonneville and
nickel, platinum and palladium, it is all over In May, the company received the final further north.”
the place,” Dorsch told Paydirt. “But nickel outstanding approvals to conduct low-im- The restricted access has made the
is so completely dysfunctional, predicting pact drilling inside the Julimar State For- scoping study process difficult given the
what it will do in five years when this mine est, paving the way for Chalice to test the true extent of Gonneville hasn’t been re-
is being built is impossible. limits of Gonneville and begin work on two vealed, but the company has nevertheless
“At the end of the day, we have a project other prospects, Hartog and Dampier. pressed ahead with work, with extensive
with a large accumulation of metal, so get- “We are looking for a few things from metallurgical testing proving two com-
ting fixated on the outlook for one or two this programme, finding another deposit mercially attractive concentrates could be
metals is not the business we need to be along the Julimar complex strike but also produced using a conventional flotation
in.” establish the northern limits of Gonneville flowsheet.
It’s hardly surprising Chalice is not fret- as it is currently cut off by the state forest “Julimar is very close to being put on the
ting about short-term market fluctuations boundary,” Dorsch said. rails as a development project so we are
given the long-term nature of Julimar. The programme will see 70 holes at seeing a much broader scope of activities

The Gonneville deposit remains open, only constrained by drilling
Page 58 JULY 2022 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT