A-Cap cranks up the confidence at Wilconi nickel-cobalt resource

A-Cap now has a tonne of confidence in its Wilconi nickel-cobalt play after a huge upgrade confirms the resource is squarely in the let’s-get-digging Indicated category.

Wilconi now has a resource of 90 million tonnes grading 0.73% nickel and 0.051% cobalt for a contained endowment of 660,000t of nickel and 46,400t of cobalt,way, way up from the previous estimate of 79Mt at 0.74% nickel and 0.07% cobalt.

Importantly for A-Cap Energy (ASX:ACB), the 256 hole infill program completed last year has allowed it to classify 29Mt of the mineralisation grading 0.7% nickel and 0.046% cobalt as Indicated resources, which grants enough confidence for mine planning.

“The recent resource work has moved a good proportion of the Wilconi resource to indicated status,” chairman Jian Dong He noted.

“Ongoing metallurgical work and infill drilling will continue to add value to this project.

“Along with our company’s uranium project in Botswana, A-Cap Energy has a strong position in future metals, with two advanced major projects in its portfolio.”

Resource update

The company noted that the infill drilling had demonstrated that the majority of the high-grade (>0.06%) cobalt mineralisation was restricted to a narrow zone of mineralisation, mostly in the upper part of the >0.5% nickel mineralisation zone.

It added that the resource estimate has assumed bulk open pit mining with free selection of the 25 m by 50 m by 5 m resource model blocks. Dilution and ore loss have not been considered

Preliminary metallurgical test work has indicated that both nickel and cobalt can be recovered by high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL), atmospheric leaching, and acid bake processing methods using sulphuric acid.

However, confirmatory metallurgical test work is required to confirm the optimal processing option, saleable product, and metal recovery.

Adding further interest, A-Cap used an assumed nickel price of US$19,400/t for the resource estimate.

This is well below the current nickel price of just under US$42,000/t.

Further plans

A-Cap recently completed a large diameter diamond drilling program and is currently waiting on assay results.

For its next phase of work, the company plans to carry out work to move part of the resource into the even higher confidence Measured category while infilling the higher grade nickel and cobalt zones intersected in the recent program.

This article was developed in collaboration with A-Cap Energy, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.