FPX Nickel announced the results of an internal engineering scoping study evaluating the production of nickel sulphate for the electric vehicle battery supply chain from the high-grade awaruite nickel concentrate to be produced by the company's Baptiste Nickel Project in central British Columbia.
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The Study highlights FPX's potential to develop the world's largest integrated nickel sulphate production facility, linking the Company directly into the EV battery supply chain via the production of low-cost, low-carbon nickel sulphate over Baptiste's projected 35-year mine life.
"This scoping study demonstrates that Baptiste could become a globally significant producer of low-cost, low-carbon nickel for electric vehicles for decades to come," commented Martin Turenne, FPX's President and CEO.
"Baptiste's awaruite nickel mineralization has clear technical advantages over sulphide and laterite ores for producing nickel sulphate, offering a lower-cost, lower-carbon path from mine-to-market in the EV battery supply chain.
"Given its extremely high nickel content (over 60% nickel) and low levels of impurities, our high-grade nickel concentrate has distinct advantages over low-grade nickel sulphide concentrates (under 20% nickel), and is already comparable to intermediate nickel sulphate feedstocks like mixed hydroxide precipitate ("MHP"), mixed sulphide precipitate ("MSP"), or nickel matte.
The near-term path for development of a nickel refinery upgrading Baptiste's awaruite nickel concentrate to nickel sulphate includes further testwork, further engineering studies, and general project development activities.
As part of FPX's ongoing three-phase metallurgical testwork campaign, approximately 17 tonnes of Baptiste material is currently being treated by a pilot plant at Corem in Quebec City.
In addition to supporting refinement of the upstream mineral processing flowsheet, this large-scale piloting will also generate sufficient awaruite nickel concentrate for hydrometallurgical testwork.
Concentrate is anticipated to be available in October 2022, with the subsequent hydrometallurgical testwork campaign to run through the fourth quarter of 2022. ■