Interesting read for the Turnagain project (Low Nickel %) Wonder if this could also be used on our high tonnage low Ni % ores at Langmuir. I like the commentary on the feedstock issues and Nickel Sulphides as well.
http://www.resourceintelligence.net/hot-stocks-hard-creek-nickel/16223
" Results of a preliminary economic assessment released on April 2010 estimate the calculated measured and indicated resources at over 695 million tonnes grading 0.216 total Ni, and 0.014 cobalt, plus over 510 million tonnes grading 0.199 total Ni, 0.014 cobalt in the inferred resource category.
Not only does Hard Creek Nickel have the goods to back it up, its outlook has just become even brighter due to a recent metallurgical breakthrough, which identifies potential for the company to develop concentrates exceeding 15% Ni while maintaining greater that 50% nickel recovery.
President and CEO Mark Jarvis explains: “Under our old metallurgical regime, we could only reliably make a concentrate grading 4% nickel because too many magnesium minerals were floating along with the pentlandite (nickel sulphide). That low grade made the concentrate non-transportable economically, and the high amount of magnesium in the concentrate meant that traditional smelters would not be able to process the concentrate. This is the reason we looked to a ‘new tech’ solution to process our concentrate on site. However, the mining business does not like new technology because, particularly for high capital cost projects, it is considered too risky.
That is why we circled back and put all our efforts into improving the froth flotation. We were hoping, in our wildest dreams, to make a concentrate grading up to 12% nickel. Our efforts have borne fruit dramatically. We are now making concentrates with nickel grades in the 15% to 25% range and with magnesium levels and iron to magnesium ratios at levels that the smelters will be happy to process.”
He called the development “game-changing” for many reasons: “It makes our project ‘plain vanilla’ in terms of technology, which is less risky and therefore more attractive to potential partners; there is a looming shortage of sulphide-based nickel concentrates so the existing smelters are getting hungry and in some cases desperate to source feedstock. If we can supply this hungry market with a large output of concentrate for many years, then we will be very attractive to the smelters. Finally, without the constraint of an onsite refinery, we are free to optimize the mine plan to process higher grades in the early years of production.”
He added that this development should boost the net present value and the IRR, and speed up the payback time. Under the PEA completed by Wardrop, the NPV, at an 8% discount, is $715 million based on an assumed price of $8.50 per pound for nickel; IRR is 10.7% and payback is 8.1 years. “Nickel is currently more than $12 per pound. At $12 nickel, the NPV is $3.3 billion, the IRR is 19.9%, and the payback is 4.4 years,” said Jarvis."
