Ardea's billion-dollar baby

Ardea Resources managing director and CEO Andrew Penkethman sat down with Australian Mining to discuss the billion-dollar backing and international partnerships driving the Goongarrie project in WA.

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When Ardea Resources managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Andrew Penkethman talks about the Goongarrie hub near Kalgoorlie, he sees a project that could reshape Australia's role in global nickel and cobalt supply. Goongarrie is positioned as a globally significant nickel-cobalt project backed by strong international partners and potential support from Australian and US export credit agencies. Development is set to play a key role in strengthening Australia's place in critical minerals supply chains.

The project is a joint venture with Kalgoorlie Nickel, which will own and develop the Goongarrie hub, located 70km north of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The hub itself hosts a mineral resource of 548 million tonnes at 0.69 per cent nickel and 0.043 per cent cobalt for four million tonnes of contained nickel and 250,000 tonnes of contained cobalt.

This sits within the wider Kalgoorlie Nickel project, which hosts the largest nickel-cobalt resource in Australia and one of the largest in the developed world. Total resource sits at 845 million tonnes at 0.71 per cent nickel and 0.045 per cent cobalt from 6.1 million tonnes of contained nickel and 386,000 tonnes of contained cobalt.

Ardea Resources has received conditional letters of support and interest from Export Finance Australia (EFA) and the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) for potential project financing. Under the proposed agreement, EXIM would provide up to $US350 million ($500 million), with EFA offering a further $500 million in support.