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DIGGeRs & DeALeRs New Century has until the end of this

month to finalise a transaction for Vale’s
Goro nickel-cobalt mine, New Caledonia

New Century

sizes up Goro

ew Century Resources Ltd has all that was the acquisition of all that vast and 20% of production went through the
Nemerged as the surprise frontrun- sunk capital that enabled to us get a very MHP facility. Now it will be 100% through
ner to acquire one of the world’s largest big operation up and running quite quick- that expanded MHP facility.”
nickel-cobalt operations, only a matter ly. Similarly, Goro has those features. Vale is in the process of obtaining an
of weeks after completing its three-year “Ultimately it has some metallurgi- export licence for the high-grade but
mission to restore the Century mine as a cal challenges that are required to be high-impurity saprolite ore which will no
top 10 global zinc producer. overcome, but we think we have that longer be blended with the limonite feed
In late May, the company was granted skillset to assist with the simplification in the HPAL processing plant. New Cale-
a 60-day exclusivity period by Vale SA to plan that’s already been outlined and ul- donia’s saprolite exports totalled 7mt last
undertake final due diligence and negoti- timately drive the costs of that operation year, representing about 12% of global
ate acquisition terms over the Brazilian down. Assuming those two things can be saprolite DSO production.
behemoth’s non-core Goro nickel-cobalt achieved, which is the task ahead should New Century is also assisting Vale
mine in New Caledonia – an asset widely we take the project on, you’ve got a fan- with its negotiations with the French state
lauded for its production potential but tastic orebody there that has production over continued financing support for the
consistently plagued by operational set- capabilities for many years to come.” Goro operation.
backs and cost blowouts. Having overseen the rejuvenation of Walta insisted there was no jurisdic-
While no direct sales figures have been the Century mine over the past three tional risk associated with acquiring an
quoted by either party, New Century has years, New Century is confident it can asset in New Caledonia, which is host to
indicated any transaction for Goro – fulfil Goro’s potential as a global top 10 three major nickel mines including Goro.
which has been in production since 2011 producer of nickel and top five supplier of “A significant portion of the GDP of the
– will include a financial assistance pack- non-DRC cobalt. country is associated with mining – and
age from Vale to ensure a smooth tran- Central to that belief is a flowsheet sim- all of it is nickel mining – so it’s very much
sition of ownership and the continuity of plification plan already being rolled out a country that is used to mining practices
operations. The company struck a similar across the operation. This includes con- and a lot of its value creation and its em-
deal with MMG Ltd in 2017 for the then version to low-impurity limonite-only feed ployment base is associated with mining
mothballed Century mine in Queensland. and the decommissioning of the existing practices,” Walta said.
New Century has also been given as- highly complex refinery which has been The potential acquisition of Goro also
surance that no historical debt legacies identified as the major source of past op- has the support of New Century’s ma-
will be transferred to the company should erational disruptions. jor shareholder IGO Ltd, which recently
it proceed with a sales transaction when Walta – a metallurgist – said the transi- joined the company’s register having
the exclusivity period expires at the end tion to 100% production of a mixed hy- heavily supported a $51 million place-
of July. droxide product (MHP) suitable for use in ment during April.
With the company set to declare com- the emerging EV industry would deliver “It’s very advantageous to have a $3
mercial production at Century later this multiple cost benefits and revenue op- billion nickel miner [on your register]
month following a challenging ramp-up portunities for the Goro operation. when you’re assessing a potential nickel
and commissioning period, the decision “MHP production is quite simple, par- mine acquisition,” Walta said.
to make a move on Goro caught many ticularly relative to the refinery,” he said. “We certainly see some opportunities
punters by surprise. However, New Cen- “It’s a simple precipitation, filtration and to grow the relationship with IGO over
tury managing director Patrick Walta said bagging mechanism and so by shutting time, particularly around offtake poten-
the operation was “right in our wheel- the refinery down and diverting all the tial. IGO has flagged previously their
house in terms of the assets we target”. feed to the MHP production – obviously desires around potential nickel sulphate
“The Goro nickel and cobalt mine is expanding the footprint of that facility manufacturing and also given the size of
obviously an asset of quite significant – you can remove that problem associ- their investment in New Century, they’re
scale, but what we do tend to target is ated with the refinery and expand your incentivised to assist and make sure that
that sunk capital,” Walta told Paydirt TV. MHP production which taps right into the the operations and the simplification plan
“In the case of the Century mine emerging electric vehicle market. at Goro can be a success.”
[where] we restarted operations and we “Historically about 80% of [nickel ox-
also facilitated rehabilitation, underlying ide] production went through the refinery – Michael Washbourne

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