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One of Australia’s best critical minerals discoveries will cost between $1.6 billion and $2.3 billion to turn into a mine, according to a long-awaited study into future development of Chalice Mining’s Gonneville project.

The study, published by Chalice late on Tuesday, contained two options for the size of the mine it plans to build to extract platinum group elements, nickel and other critical minerals from beneath farmland about 70 kilometres north-east of Perth.

Chalice mining chief executive Alex Dorsch. Trevor Collens

An option to extract 15 million tonnes of ore a year would cost $1.6 billion to build, while the $2.3 billion price tag was attached to a mine double the size.

Both options were forecast by Chalice to pay for themselves within two years, although Chalice signalled it would not take a final investment decision until 2026 and first production was not expected until 2029.

The capital costs flagged in Tuesday’s study look slightly higher than expected by analysts; in July, Macquarie analysts estimated about $1.34 billion of capex would be required between now and 2029 to deliver the mine.

Chalice said it was confident the project could be funded through a combination of debt and equity, and the company was continuing talks with “big miners”, battery makers and carmakers over partnering opportunities, including the sale of a stake in the project.

Macquarie’s forecasts were based on a mine that would produce similar volumes of nickel, copper, cobalt and gold as forecast by the study published by Chalice on Tuesday, although Macquarie had expected higher volumes of palladium and platinum.

With six payable metals, Chalice’s Gonneville project has been described by some as a nickel project, while others consider platinum group elements to be the main game.

Chalice said on Tuesday that 55 per cent of revenue over the life of the mine would come from palladium and 3 per cent from platinum.

Nickel sales would generate 24 per cent of the revenue, copper would generate 12 per cent, while cobalt and gold would provide 4 per cent and 2 per cent of revenue respectively.

Macquarie had forecast in July that 37 per cent of revenue would come from palladium and 10 per cent from platinum.

Chalice said on Tuesday the deposit also contained low levels of rhodium, iridium and silver.

The company said Tuesday’s study did not assume any revenue would be earned from those metals, but further work would be done to investigate whether they too could be sold.

Iridium is a hardening agent that is often used in the anodes of electrolysers that make hydrogen.

Most of the world’s rhodium demand is from carmakers who use the metal in the catalytic converters that reduce the toxicity of vehicle exhaust.

Silver has many uses, including for making the electrode lines that carry electrons in most solar panels, although Australian company Sundrive has developed a solar panel that uses copper for that purpose rather than silver.