Nickel – Wingellina Nickel-Cobalt Project

History

• 1954: First deposits of nickel oxides in weathered ultramafic rocks in the Musgrave region located in the Mt Davies area, in the far northwest of South Australia.
• 1956: International Nickel Company (INCO) discovers the Wingellina nickel oxide deposit over the border within Western Australia.
• 1957-65: Ongoing exploration, drilling and metallurgical activities by Inco.
• 1965-70: Inco & Nickel Mines of Australia (NMA), under a JV, complete further exploration including extensive drilling programs.
• 1970: Inco withdraws from the JV.
• 1970-74: Further exploration work by NMA, including diamond drilling and efforts to find a new project partner.
• 1975-2001: Proclamation of Aboriginal Reserve 17614 in 1975 with no further exploration permitted by the traditional owners.
• 2001: Local Traditional Owners signed an Access Agreement with Hinckley Range Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Acclaim Exploration.
• 2001 – 2006: Acclaim conducts extensive exploration drilling programs and updates resource estimates.
• 2006: Metals X Ltd purchases the project from Acclaim.
• 2006-2008: MLX continues extensive RC and DDH drilling programs and metallurgical testwork leading to Mineral Resource estimates being declared for the Wingellina Deposit and Claude Hills deposit in South Australia.
• 2008: Phase 1 Feasibility Study completed.
• 2008 – 2015: Comprehensive bench-scale & pilot metallurgical test work, geotechnical diamond drilling, extensive flora and fauna studies, site engineering testing and logistics investigations in preparation for a bankable feasibility study.
• 2010: Metals X and the Ngaanyatjarra Land Council sign a mining agreement covering the Wingellina deposit.
• 2016: Public Environmental Review approval by Environmental Protection Authority
• 2016 – 2018: Further metallurgical studies, investigation of infrastructure options, and completion of an infill drilling program to test conceptual high-grade cobalt starter pits within the defined Mineral Resource.

Geology

The Project covers approximately 1,756km2 of the mid-Proterozoic Musgrave Block, an east-west trending belt of granulite-gneiss basement rocks approximately 500 kilometres long. Within this package is the economically significant Giles Complex which comprises over twenty-one separate layered ultramafic, mafic and anorthositic intrusions with a combined outcrop area of about 1,200km2. Deep weathering of the Giles Complex rocks has developed substantial high metallurgical purity, limonite rich lateritic nickel-cobalt deposits.

The CMP comprises two lateritic nickel-cobalt resource areas;

1. Wingellina located within Western Australia and,
2. Claude Hills located within South Australia.

Project Studies

Metals X completed a Phase 1 Feasibility Study (+/– 25%) in 2008 which highlighted Wingellina as a robust project, with a minimum 40 year mine life at an average annual production rate of 40,000 tonnes of nickel and 3,000 tonnes of cobalt. The Feasibility Study assumed a nickel price of US$20,000 per tonne nickel, US$40,000 per tonne cobalt and an A$/US$ exchange rate of 0.85, resulting in an estimated NPV(8%) of US$3.4 Billion at a production cost of US$3.34/lb after cobalt credits.

The Company has identified 15 potential high-grade, cobalt-nickel conceptual pits with a significant quantity of nickel and cobalt (326,100 tonnes Ni and 25,800 tonnes Co) within the existing Wingellina Mineral Resource and has infill drilled 6 of these pits. Preliminary optimisations of the high-grade cobalt – nickel pits demonstrate potential for a high grade, small scale start-up option for Wingellina.

Metallurgical testwork on Wingellina ore was conducted during 2018 for the production of cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate as feedstock for the battery industry. Leaching of cobalt and nickel was successfully completed. Previous variability testwork indicated that leach recoveries of over 94% for both nickel and cobalt are achievable with acid consumptions of approximately 300kg/t.