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BATTERY MINERALS PREVIEW

Boots on

ground

now for

tomorrow’s

nickel

attery demand has not had a big im-
Bpact on nickel sulphide supply yet but
when the time does arrive miners may not
have to look far from Western Australia to
secure the base metal.
While stainless steel remains the pri-
mary market for nickel, Neometals Ltd
managing director Chris Reed is already
preparing for a change in dynamics.
“We’re in nickel but it is for exposure
in a couple years’ time when a signifi-
cant part of it is driven by the growth in
batteries. It is a bit like lithium 10 years
ago; we were in at Mt Marion but battery
production was probably about 30% of Chris Reed
demand,” reed told Paydirt.
“I am thinking battery demand for build a plant, there are options there for
nickel is about 10-20%, but now battery third-party treatment so you can develop
demand for lithium will be 60%. You still them as the market justifies it,” Reed dirt in most mineral commodities; it is
have those base world applications and said. mined, can be treated and you can make
that is great because it soaks up units. It Equally as measured and patient in the a profit,” Wilson told Paydirt. “It certainly
is the same thing with cobalt; it is a non- nickel space is Legend Mining Ltd. doesn’t surprise or disappoint me be-
magnetic mineral, so you have the tradi- While it may be some time before cause it is what it is.”
tional applications in aerospace and it is Legend proves it has the next best thing The climatic conditions in the Fraser
pretty much non-substitutable and you to IGO Ltd’s Nova, managing director Range at the time of print meant there
have more of it demanded in the batter- Mark Wilson has the backing to stay the was no pressure on Legend to keep on
ies.” course at the Rockford project in the drilling, giving the company time to build
Neometals drilled at the Mt Edwards Fraser Range. a 3D model from findings in the structural
nickel project, 90km south of Kalgoorlie, The recently renamed Mawson dis- report carried out on Mawson.
up until Christmas and was expecting as- covery, previously known as Area D, has “After 6-7 weeks we still don’t know the
says to filter through at the time of print. been confirmed with Legend reporting answer as to what we’ve got until we do
Results from RC drilling at the Widg- assays of 70.15m @ 0.52% nickel, 0.36% that 3D model and then go out and test it,
ie South Trend received late last year copper, 0.03% cobalt from 88.2m, includ- that’s the nature of the game. You have
included 16m @ 1.45% nickel, includ- ing 14.9m @ 1.07% nickel, 0.75% copper, to go step by step in a very structured
ing 2m @ 4.79%, 5m @ 1.81%, 21m @ 0.06% cobalt from 114m, including 2.1m manner and maintain your discipline be-
1.05%, including 4m @ 2.42% and 7m @ @ 2.03% nickel, 1.34% copper, 0.11% cause that is the way you get it right and
1.37%, including 3m @ 2.39%. cobalt from 115.5m in hole KDD007 in avoid chasing red herrings,” Wilson said.
“The nickel is pretty good and we have January. “That 3D model will use a lot of this
a good resource base there with 11 re- “The naysayers will be saying they are structural information and it will become
sources. We are just starting the pre- a bit skinny because Nova goes 1.9% pretty obvious to us where we drill our
liminary evaluation on a couple of those nickel and 1% copper and this grade with next holes and that drilling campaign will
deposits, all of them will work at certain the disseminated is only 0.5% and 0.3% be scheduled to kick off later this quar-
prices. We are getting it ready for a cou- copper. What I point out to people is that ter.”
ple of years’ time but we don’t have a if you multiply the metals values out you In the meantime, Wilson accepts that
gun against our head, in terms of when end up with an intercept that across the day traders will float in and out of the
it needs to be on-line. We don’t need to 70m is going $US105/t and that is pay- stock, but knows that true believers – IGO

Page 40 FeBRUaRY 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT