Chalice Mining has nearly completed its pre-feasibility study (PFS) for its Gonneville palladium-nickel-copper project in Western Australia, with the final results expected in November 2025 as palladium prices climbed a two-year high.
As part of its September quarterly report, the company said it has $76.4 million in cash and listed investments with no debt, putting it on track to make a final investment decision (FID) by late 2027.
The Gonneville PFS has finalised scope, staging, costing, mining optimisations, and offtake assumptions during the quarter, signalling a shift to long-life bulk open-pit mining with a simplified concentrator-leach process plant.
The plant is planned to have a lower process throughput for the first four years of operation and subsequent expansion from year five.
Metallurgical testwork, flowsheet design and variability testwork have also been completed, with an updated process design and cost estimation work seeing said flowsheet no longer needing the hydrometallurgical facility.
Chalice said this “substantially reduces the capex (capital expenditure), opex (operational expenditure) and risk profile” for the project, relative to the August 2023 scoping study.
Two smelter-grade concentrates will also be produced, one copper-palladium-gold and another nickel-cobalt-palladium-platinum, alongside a 65 per cent iron concentrate and palladium-gold doré.
Chalice managing director and chief executive officer Alex Dorsch said the simplified flowsheet and staged mine plan are expected to improve margins and accelerate payback once operations begin in 2029–30.
Furthermore, Chalice defined a hybrid solar-battery-diesel and 132 kilo-volt grid connection power solution to support low cost and flexible power, while water will be sourced at no cost from Water Corporation’s Alkimos facility through a 50-kilometre pipeline.
Draft environmental review documents (ERDs) have also progressed with the submission scheduled for mid 2026, with environmental modelling underway through consultancy firm GHD.
On Chalice’s wider exploration projects in Western Australia (WA) and the Northern Territory (NT), two greenfield targets have been tested during the quarter with first-pass aircore (AC) drilling, with six new greenfield targets to be drilled in Q4 2025.
First-pass AC drilling was also completed at the Klein Target, intersecting a new prospective mafic-ultramafic intrusive complex 70 kilometres east-northeast of Gonneville. Currently all assays are pending with a moving-loop electromagnetic (MLEM) survey planned for Q4 CY25.
The company also reported exploration across more than 7000 square kilometres in the West Yilgarn province in WA, with an initial 3000m reverse circulation (RC) drilling program to begin at the Warspite target in the coming weeks.
Chalice also highlighted a recovering palladium market, which scaled $US1600 per ounce in October, underpinned by ongoing supply risks and tightening global inventories.
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