heed the whirl wind i mentioned yesterday, page-23

read here. european nickel process results Distributed on behalf of European Nickel PLC by
Bankside Consultants, St Mary Abchurch House, 123 Cannon Street, London EC4N5AU
Telephone 020 7444 4140 Facsimile 020 7444 4184 E-mail: [email protected]
news release
For immediate release: 6 June 2005
European Nickel PLC
Leach recovery of nickel passes 50%
Continued heap percolation over 7 months
LONDON: 6 June 2005— European Nickel PLC (“ENickel” or the “Company”)
(‘ENK.L’), the British company developing an innovative process for the production of
nickel from oxide ores, reports that recovery from the trial heaps at its pilot plant in
Turkey now exceeds 50% of nickel into solution.
The pilot plant at the Company’s trial heap leach site at Çaldağ, near Izmir in
western Turkey, is in full operation, producing about two tonnes per week of
nickel/cobalt hydroxide, with a +30% metal content, as an intermediate product
which can be shipped to refineries in Australia, Europe and China for the final
downstream processing of nickel and cobalt metal.
After seven months of operations ENickel calculates that it has successfully leached
more than 50 percent of the contained nickel and cobalt metal which is now held in
free metal in the heap or in solution in the pregnant liquor now being fed to the pilot
plant. This is faster than predicted by laboratory tests and has been achieved
through a particularly wet Turkish winter demonstrating the permeability of the
Balkan rock laterites in a heap leach process. The final leach recoveries are expected
to be confirmed by the end of Q3.
BHP Billiton currently has a 3.5% equity interest in ENickel under a share and
purchase agreement which can increase to 8.9% following the exercise of a second
option to acquire another 5.8 million shares for an outlay of $4.3 million. This option
is exercisable up until recoveries reach 60% of contained nickel and gives BHP
Billiton the rights to 50% of the planned project off-take at market related prices
under the terms of a product supply agreement. The companies are working
together on the development of the nickel laterite heap leaching process under a
technology development agreement.
Simon Purkiss, managing director, said today: “We are very pleased at the high rate
of recovery we have been able to achieve over this first seven months. The
percolation through the heap continues to be good and demonstrates the practicality
of this heap leach process. It will take another 3 to 4 months to confirm the final
level of nickel extraction but I believe we have now proved beyond doubt that heap
leaching of this type of ore is possible. This level of recovery has been achieved
earlier than we had originally envisaged, demonstrating superior leach dynamics.”
Distributed on behalf of European Nickel PLC by
Bankside Consultants, St Mary Abchurch House, 123 Cannon Street, London EC4N5AU
Telephone 020 7444 4140 Facsimile 020 7444 4184 E-mail: [email protected]
“The bankable feasibility study, which we expect to complete in the third quarter, will
also, I believe, prove the commercial viability of this process.”
Ends
Note
ENickel is developing the Çaldağ nickel deposit, where it has a 38 million tonne
resource with a grade of 1.14% nickel and 0.05% cobalt at relatively shallow depths,
which can be mined by open pit methods. The Company is demonstrating that the
oxide ores of Turkey and those in other areas of the Balkans can be treated using a
simple acid leach process, which will provide a lower cost nickel production route
than conventional technologies. The Company is demonstrating the process through
the construction and operation of a large scale trial heap leach operation. This is the
first time that this has been done anywhere in the world on this scale.
Three trial heaps of various sizes have been constructed and are under irrigation
with dilute sulphuric acid. The heaps produced nickel in solution within days of startup
and the first heap started in October 2004 has now been under irrigation for 7
months. The nickel solution being produced is now being treated in a continuous
large pilot plant operation that is producing the nickel/cobalt product.
Subject to the availability of funding, ENickel expects to start construction of a fullscale
plant in early 2006 to produce up to 15,000 tonnes of contained nickel metal a
year with production starting in early 2007.
Ends
Contacts:
Simon Purkiss, MD 020 7495 5055 / 07798 836 225
European Nickel
Keith Irons 020 7444 4155 / 07885 356 639
Simon Rothschild 020 7444 4153 / 07703 167 065
Bankside Consultants