African Nickel Limited will declare the maiden resource for the Kunene Nickel project at the end of 2024.
The South African-based company has a 75% interest in EPLs 7609 (6372 ha) and 7610 (4931 ha), under which the Kunene Nickel project resides.
The Kunene Nickel project deposit has an estimated yield of 91.60 Mt, which has been identified on the surface of the Ombuku North area of the project.
The company was also negotiating to acquire EPL 4361 (30,000 ha) and enter into a JV or royalty agreement with the holder.
The company is currently conducting the scoping study and metallurgical testwork.
In June 2023, African Nickel started a focused exploration programme to declare a potentially significant maiden compliant resource by the first half of 2024.
In May 2024, African Nickel Limited said it was seeking between US$2.5 million and US$5 million to fund the Kunene Nickel Project in Namibia.
Africa Nickel started metallurgical test work, leading to a pre-feasibility study in August 2023.
The initial test work indicated the presence of nickel and copper, cobalt, and platinum-group metals.
African Nickel also commissioned a concept study on mining the Kunene orebody in November 2022, and the reasonable prospect of economic extraction estimate for surface and underground mining is at an advanced stage.
In November 2022, African Nickel commissioned a competent person report and a preliminary compliant resource quantification done during the first quarter of 2023 in the Ombuku North target.
The audio magnetotellurics (AMT) geophysical survey work completed by mid-Jun 2023 will allow accurate drill work planning in Ombuku North and South.
Also, in June 2023, African Nickel completed a desk-top study on metallurgical strategy for Kunene. In July, the company started extracting a bulk sample with Bench Scale.