Ardea Gets $2.5 Million Boost from R&D Work at Goongarrie

Ardea Resources (ASX:ARL,OTC Pink:ARRRF) has boosted its cash position to $11.8 million following a $2.5 million refund from Australia’s Federal Government Tax Office.

The company, working to develop its flagship Goongarrie nickel-cobalt project (GNCP), has included research and development as a “key pillar” of its metallurgical programs. According to Ardea, the refund came as a result of the quality of GNCP’s research.

Highlights from the press release are as follows:

The 2018 GNCP Research and Development programme focussed on:

• Pilot Plant – 15 tonnes of specially drilled GNCP core and ancillary drill material was processed in a pilot-scale High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) circuit to produce Mixed Sulphide Product (MSP).

• Crystal Production – the MSP then underwent multiple experiments at bench-scale to remove impurities and produce nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate that met battery industry quality requirements.

• Geo-metallurgy – all GNCP drill samples are subject to a 67-element assay suite with 12 specific ratios, X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and specialised geological logging then used as a predictive tool to hypothesize future HPAL plant performance.

• Multiple product revenue streams – the detailed analytical suite has quantified multiple potential co-products that can value add to the nickel and cobalt sulphate, including manganese sulphate, scandium trioxide, vanadium pentoxide, High Purity Alumina (HPA) and Rare Earth Elements (REE) for magnet production.

• Onsite Neutraliser – the key innovation was identifying material within mine waste that could be used for process plant neutraliser following the HPAL dissolution of the ore.

Andrew Penkethman, Ardea Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“The Ardea R&D programme has focussed upon innovative flowsheet development leading to pilot-plant testing that produced a commercial quality of battery feed grade nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate. The upstream battery market is a dynamic space and the R&D undertaken is geared to position Ardea as a potential key strategic player in the burgeoning Electric Vehicle and Static Storage Battery sectors.”

Click here to read the full press release from Ardea Resources.