Let's see what 2023 brings, Hilux98, before we abandon all...

Let's see what 2023 brings, Hilux98, before we abandon all hope.

The share price peaked actually at $1.28 back in November 2017 on the back of the Quicksilver Ni-Co discovery (total indicated and inferred resource estimate of 26.3 Mt @ 0.64% Ni & 0.04% Co - for 168,500 contained metal tonnes Nickel, 11,300 metal tonnes Cobalt).

And though Quicksilver was early labelled a "Nickel Laterite" project - which, in the wake of the likes of Twiggy Forrest's Anaconda misadventure, soon saw the market lose interest - what was overlooked or unappreciated at the time was that this was actually a Clay-Hosted (Saprolitic) deposit, rich also in Magnetites.

And that, happily, has major positive implications for commercial extraction.

Indeed, several recent rounds of metallurgical test work are now showing great promise for just that.


You should understand that the major advantage of Lateritic ore is that it is typically found in very large tonnage (albeit low-grade) deposits located close to the surface, and is generally mined via open cut.

So low cost mining.

Its disadvantage is the cost of processing - either by the Caron Process: reduction, roast, ammonia leach; or PAL (or HPAL): high-pressure sulphuric acid leach; or the EPAL Process: enhanced pressure acid leach - it can be darned expensive.

With Sulphidic ore, a series of mechanical, chemical, and magnetic separators (some nickel-bearing sulfides are magnetic) are used to extract the nickel, followed by roasting in an oven or leaching through chemicals to further refine the final product.

So it's cheaper and easier to process.

But Sulphidic ore is generally found deeper underground than laterites - is typically extracted via underground mining.

Which is, of course, more expensive.

Enter this Clay-Hosted material.

One might almost say it has the advantages of both Sulphidic (cheap and easy to process) and typical Lateritic ore (cheap and easy to mine) - without the disadvantages of either!


Anyway, this is the broad thesis the approaching third round of metallurgical testing will interrogate.

We can't quite count our cluckers on Quicksilver as a company-maker yet ...but it's looking very positive so far.

And the definitive answers aren't so very far away.

Throw in the serendipitous possibility of REE credits in the mix (see the Announcement of 06 December 2022), and set it all against a backdrop of the rising battery-metal outlook ...and I think your pooh-poohing of G88 might be a tad precipitate, Hilux98.


Particularly when you take account of the Company's present astonishingly low market cap.

We'll see.

One thing is certain - 2023 is shaping as a watershed year for Golden Mile.