OK, the Ni in Wingelliena is not as Ni Sulphides which is usually treated by grinding and flotation to give a product that is easily converted to Ni Sulphate (NiSO4) [ via the Sheritt Gordon process {ammonia pressue leach} e.g in Kwinana and proposed IGO plant] the stuff they want for batteries and then Ni metal.
Lateritic nickel is usually interspersed with an iron oxide called goethite (not a sulphde) . This required significantly more energy to separate it is usally doen by HPAL a HIGH Pressure Acid Lech. This is done at Murrin Murrin and Cawse . When those two plants were set up they were a bitch to get going efficiently. Instead of going the all way to Ni metal you can get to Ni Hydroxide also an intermediate product that which relatively easliy converted to NiSO4 the bit that is likely to have a premium price for battery use.
Luckily though Wingelliena is lateritic the iron oxide it is hosted in is Limonite not goethite a less hard to leach iron oxide. In thermo-chemisity terms the energy use is say: 40% for the sulphide; 65 %; for the limonites; 80% for the goethite. (Burning sulphur aka roasting e.g. at Kambalda actually releases energy).
The Koreans say they can liberate the Ni from the Wingellina ore by a kiln roast and leach somewhat more cost efficiently but : 1 the process is subject to copyright 2 No-one has done it yet commercially.
I think they could do this with a $6-700M plant.
Laterite HPAL is pretty capital intensive think stainless steel vats for hot acid and pressure. Were pretty much taking $1-2 B plus whats more is your leaching ao all the ore. The Sherrit Gordon process only leaches roasted float concentrate, say 8% of the weight. which is why Nickel west roasts the Nickel con. to an oxide (called nickel matte) then rails it to Kwinana for the ammonia leach and conversion to nickel.
As for the Co. MLX has talked about mining a bit of this high value stuff. When I asked the MD he said they would have to build a plant to process it themselves. They've done some lab work surrounding it.
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