Alaska Energy Metals Corp. July 16 reported results of metallurgical testing that could help establish the foundation for evaluating the economics of building a mine and processing plant at the company’s Nikolai nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group metal (PGM) project in Alaska.
Lying about 50 miles south of Delta Junction, Alaska, the Eureka Zone deposit at Nikolai hosts 1.19 billion metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.21% (5.61 billion lb) nickel, 0.07% (1.77 billion lb) copper, 0.02% (442 million lb) cobalt, 0.01 grams per metric ton (469,000 oz) gold, 0.09 g/t (3.33 million oz) palladium, 0.05 g/t (1.72 million oz) platinum, 0.3% (7.86 billion lb) chromium, and 9.87% (117 million metric tons) iron.
In addition, the deposit hosts 2.09 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.2% (9.38 billion lb) nickel, 0.05% (2.43 billion lb) copper, 0.02% (758 million lb) cobalt, 0.01 g/t (661,000 oz) gold, 0.07 g/t (4.57 million oz) palladium, 0.04 g/t (1.58 million oz) platinum, 0.27% (12.29 billion lb) chromium, and 9.8% (205 million metric tons) iron.
Having outlined a deposit with roughly 15 billion lb of nickel, and large quantities of five other critical metals, Alaska Energy Metals has focused on the metallurgical testing needed to determine the recoverability of the metals.
“Metal recovery rates are the primary input to an economic analysis,” said Alaska Energy Metals CEO Greg Beischer.
To determine the metal recovery rates, the company sent samples of core from drilling through the large nickel deposit to SGS Laboratories in Quebec for locked-cycle flotation testing.
Locked-cycle flotation is a bench test that simulates a continuous mining circuit by recirculating intermediate products into the subsequent cycle.
The testing recovered 49.4% of the nickel, 50.5% of the copper, 21% of the cobalt, 49.1% of the platinum, 43.1% of the palladium, and 43.9% of the gold. The concentrate produced from this testing graded 7.22% nickel, 4.01% copper, 0.30% cobalt, 2.33 g/t platinum, 4.1 g/t palladium, and 0.78 g/t gold.
Recent open-cycle testing, a one-time-through process for preliminary results, indicates that different reagents could improve both recoveries and concentrate grades. Locked-cycle testing using these reagents is being conducted, and results are expected in August.
“With metallurgical recoveries now proven, Nikolai is emerging as a significant source of nickel, copper and cobalt, producible in the USA,” said Beischer.
The company envisions feeding concentrate produced at Nikolai through an on-site hydrometallurgical refinery.
Also known as hydromet, this process extracts and purifies metals from concentrates and recycled materials using liquid solvents rather than the extreme heat used in traditional pyrometallurgical refineries. This process lowers the emissions and energy requirements for metal production.
To further evaluate the on-site refinery potential, the company is sending concentrates to Lifezone Metals, a company that has developed a hydromet process for recovering metals from nickel concentrates.
“If successful, hydromet would allow us to produce metals on site in Alaska for the American technology and industrial market and the U.S. defense industrial base,” the Alaska Energy CEO added. “Nikolai potentially provides a domestic solution for the country’s near-total reliance on foreign imports for nickel and can contribute to domestic metal supply chain security for multiple critical and strategic metals.”
To further evaluate this potential critical metals solution, Alaska Energy plans to incorporate the metallurgical results into an internal economic analysis and, depending on the outcome, have a preliminary economic assessment completed that will provide a first look at the economic and engineering parameters of a mine at the Nikolai critical metals project in Alaska.
Author Bio
Shane Lasley, Publisher
Over his more than 18 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.