VANCOUVER, BC, May 17, 2023
/CNW/ - FPX Nickel Corp. (TSXV: FPX) (OTCQB: FPOCF) ("FPX"
or the "Company") is pleased to announce the achievement of
a significant milestone in the production of battery-grade nickel
sulphate from its Baptiste Nickel Project ("Baptiste" or the
"Project") in central British
Columbia. FPX's hydrometallurgical testwork program
has resulted in substantial improvements to the refinery flowsheet
for the processing of Baptiste's awaruite nickel concentrate,
centred in the optimization of the leaching circuit and the
resultant simplification of downstream purification
requirements. In addition to demonstrating that awaruite's
unique properties lead to an efficient route for producing
battery-grade nickel sulphate, the program successfully produced
cobalt and copper by-products, which both represent new potential
value sources for Baptiste.
Highlights
- Testwork performed in collaboration with Sherritt Technologies
Ltd. produced nickel sulphate crystals with quality that meets
industry-standard battery-grade specifications
- Program has lead to substantial optimization of the refinery
flowsheet, reducing the number of purification stages, reagent
consumption, and equipment sizes, confirming that FPX's awaruite
nickel concentrate has clear advantages over competing intermediate
feedstocks for the production of nickel sulphate
- Results demonstrate the ability to produce cobalt and copper
by-products, both contributing to potential for enhanced economics
for Baptiste
"The results of our hydrometallurgical testwork program clearly
demonstrate the technical advantages of awaruite nickel
mineralization to produce battery-grade nickel sulphate, presenting
an opportunity to develop a new vertically integrated nickel supply
chain in Canada," commented
Andrew Osterloh, FPX Nickel's Senior
Vice-President, Projects & Operations. "In addition to
processing advantages, the size of the Baptiste resource can
produce up to 43,500 tonnes of nickel contained in nickel sulphate
per year, enough to fulfill 17% of the projected North American EV
battery demand for nickel in 20301, all without
displacing any of North America's
current smelting and primary refining capacity. These testwork
results are currently being incorporated into our preliminary
feasibility study ("PFS"), which remains on track for
completion in September 2023, where
we will be able to further demonstrate Baptiste's potential to
deliver low-cost, low-carbon nickel units to the EV supply chain
over a 30-year mine life."
Background
Upstream of EV battery manufacturers are chemical plants
producing P-CAM (precursor cathode active material) and CAM
(cathode active material) for inclusion into battery cell cathodes.
These chemical plants require nickel inputs to produce P-CAM and
CAM, with a preference for nickel sulphate specifically.
Currently, nickel sulphate is primarily produced from the
dissolution of LME-grade nickel briquettes or from the refining of
nickel intermediate products like MHP (mixed hydroxide
precipitate), MSP (mixed sulphide precipitate) and matte. The
results of the testwork program described herein confirm that FPX's
awaruite nickel concentrate has clear technical advantages over
competing intermediate feedstocks for producing nickel sulphate,
offering a more direct processing route for integration into the EV
battery supply chain.
Summary
As described in the Company's September
7, 2022 news release, initial leach testwork and a 2022
scoping study highlighted the opportunity to refine Baptiste's
high-grade awaruite nickel concentrate (60-65% Ni) to nickel
sulphate and cobalt precipitate products. The initial leach
testwork indicated that Baptiste concentrate was readily leachable
and produced a high-grade leachate which is low in
impurities. The scoping study outlined a conventional
hydrometallurgical flowsheet for direct production of nickel
sulphate and cobalt precipitate without the intermediate smelting
typically required for sulphide concentrates or the extensive,
aggressive pressure oxidation conditions required for laterite ores
and nickel sulphide concentrates.
To support the PFS strategy described in the Company's
January 17, 2023 news release, the
Company has now completed a hydrometallurgical testwork program
which has validated and optimized the process flowsheet and
criteria; this program will feed into the refinery option for
presentation within the Baptiste PFS. The
hydrometallurgical testwork utilized concentrate feedstock
generated from the large-scale pilot testwork as described in the
Company's January 24, 2023 news
release.
The testwork program resulted in substantial improvements to the
refinery flowsheet, including:
- Confirmation of awaruite's favourable leaching characteristics,
with consistently greater than 99% nickel extraction under moderate
conditions and short treatment times
- Identification of an optimized leaching flowsheet that tangibly
improves the leachate quality, reducing previously considered
downstream purification requirements
- Production of a copper product, which represents a new
potential value source for Baptiste
- Validation of leachate purification unit operations and
resulted in the physical production of nickel sulphate and cobalt
precipitate products
- Demonstration that nickel sulphate crystals produced from
Baptiste's awaruite concentrate have a quality which meets industry
standard battery-grade specifications
Based on testwork results, the optimized Baptiste refinery block
flow diagram is presented in Figure 2.
Testwork Program
Building on previous leach testwork, the Company undertook a
hydrometallurgical testwork program to optimize the refinery
flowsheet and develop suitable criteria for use in the refinery
option which will be presented in the Baptiste PFS. The
Company engaged Sherritt Technologies Ltd. ("Sherritt") to
conduct this testwork based on their previous testwork experience
with Baptiste material and extensive nickel hydrometallurgical
expertise. FPX's metallurgical team worked closely with
Sherritt to optimize a wide range of parameters for each unit
operation in the flowsheet.
Feedstock for the hydrometallurgical testwork program was the
awaruite nickel concentrate produced from the large-scale pilot
testwork as described in the Company's January 24, 2023 news release.
Specifications for this feedstock are presented in Table 1, which
also includes a comparison to both the feedstock from previous
testwork and the 2022 scoping study.
Table 1 – Testwork Feedstock Characteristics
Element
|
Current
Testwork
Feedstock
|
Previous
Testwork
Feedstock
|
Scoping
Study
Basis
|
Nickel (Ni)
|
66 %
|
65 %
|
63 %
|
Iron (Fe)
|
25 %
|
25 %
|
30 %
|
Sulphur (S)
|
0.4 %
|
0.7 %
|
0.6 %
|
Cobalt (Co)
|
1.1 %
|
1.0 %
|
1.0 %
|
Copper (Cu)
|
0.4 %
|
1.0 %
|
0.6 %
|
Magnesium
(Mg)
|
0.6 %
|
0.4 %
|
0.6 %
|
As seen in Table 1, feedstock to the hydrometallurgical testwork
program is aligned with previous testwork feedstock as well as the
2022 scoping study basis. Testwork commenced in November 2022 and completed in early May with the
production of nickel sulphate crystals and high-grade cobalt and
copper by-products.
Leaching
Leaching testwork focused on two key objectives, including (1)
optimization of pressure leaching conditions established in
previous testwork, and (2) reducing reagent consumption by adding
an atmospheric leach stage in a counter-current leach
configuration.
A counter-current leach is a common leach circuit configuration,
which testwork demonstrates provides an advantage for Baptiste due
to the reactivity of the awaruite. Instead of neutralizing
autoclave discharge acid with a purchased chemical, testwork
clearly demonstrates that awaruite itself can be used to neutralize
the solution. This more efficiently utilizes acid added in
the pressure leaching stage and reduces downstream neutralization
chemical consumption. The remaining awaruite, now partially
leached, reports back to pressure leaching to ensure complete
extraction and recovery of contained nickel. This approach
also reduces the size of the autoclave since a percentage of the
awaruite has already been dissolved in the atmospheric leach
stage.
Key results from the pressure and atmospheric leaching testwork
are summarized in Table 2. The breakthrough result is the
ability of the atmospheric leach to not only remove all free acid
from the pressure leach discharge, but also the complete removal of
all iron impurities. This confirms awaruite as an effective
neutralizing agent, having the ability to increase the atmospheric
leach pH to a sufficiently high level to permit complete iron
removal. This complete removal of iron eliminates a previously
considered downstream impurity precipitation unit operation.
As atmospheric leach serves as an extremely effective solution
purification operation, with no reagent costs, pressure
leaching can be simplified by removing the requirements to produce
a low impurity solution. This provides new flexibility to
focus pressure leaching solely on optimizing the balance between
nickel recovery and residence time. Table 2 presents a
summary of leach testwork results compared with previous leach
testwork and the 2022 scoping study.
Table 2 –Baptiste's Scoping Study Leach Assumptions vs.
Optimized Testwork Results
|
Current Testwork
Results
|
Previous
Testwork
Results
|
Scoping
Study
Basis
|
Atmospheric
Leach
Stage
|
Pressure
Leach
Stage
|
Leaching
Requirements:
|
|
Pressure
(kPag)
|
0
|
750
|
750
|
850
|
Temperature (°C)
|
85
|
150
|
150
|
150
|
Residence Time
(hours)
|
4.0
|
2.0
|
3.0
|
2.5
|
Final Nickel
Extraction (%)
|
99.1-99.8
|
98.5-99.5
|
98.5
|
Final Leach
Solution:
|
|
|
|
Nickel
(g/L)
|
100
|
70
|
70
|
Iron
(g/L)
|
<0.001
|
0.8-2.5
|
0.5
|
Free Sulphuric
Acid (g/L)
|
0 (pH 5.0)
|
10-25
|
25
|
As seen in Table 2, the optimized leach circuit results in a
substantial increase in leachate nickel concentration, now 100 g/L
versus previous 70 g/L. This simplifies the circuit water
balance and reduces the size of downstream purification equipment
due to the more concentrated stream resulting in lower volumetric
flows.
The final leach circuit optimization was the inclusion of a
copper cementation stage to precipitate and recover copper.
Taking advantage of awaruite's reductant properties,
cementation tests using pressure leach discharge and awaruite
concentrate resulted in high copper removal efficiencies into a
high-grade copper by-product. This permits effective recovery
of the copper contained in the awaruite feedstock and though of
modest quantity (with copper representing less than 1% content in
the awaruite concentrate), this copper product represents a new
potential source of value for Baptiste.
Solution Purification and
Crystallization
Solution purification testing focused on validating the use of
conventional nickel purification technologies to produce a nickel
sulphate solution of sufficient purity to be crystallized into a
nickel sulphate product suitable for use in the EV battery supply
chain. Due to the high quality of leachate produced,
purification requires only two unit operations; cobalt solvent
extraction for removal of cobalt from the leach solution, and
nickel solvent extraction for the concentration and final
purification of nickel sulphate. It is noted that Baptiste's
two-stage purification process is relatively simple compared to the
four stages of purification which are typically required when
producing nickel sulphate from mixed sulphide precipitate
("MSP"), mixed hydroxide precipitate ("MHP"), or
sulphide concentrates feedstocks. The reduced purification circuit
complexity is reflective of the low impurities inherent in
Baptiste's awaruite concentrate and its efficiency in removing free
acid and iron impurities in the new atmospheric leach stage.
The cobalt solvent extraction operation successfully extracted
over 99% of cobalt with minimal co-extraction of nickel. The
cobalt was recovered in a strip solution which was then used to
generate cobalt precipitate products. Testwork demonstrated
the flexibility to produce both cobalt hydroxide and cobalt
sulphide precipitates, with produced precipitates grading 40% and
39% cobalt, respectively. With demonstration that production of
either product form is technically viable, the final commercial
selection can be tailored to meet the market's preferred
product.
The cobalt-barren solution from cobalt solvent extraction was
then processed through nickel solvent extraction which successfully
extracted over 99% of the nickel with minimal co-extraction of
magnesium, the key impurity to be rejected at this stage. The
resultant nickel strip solution was then subjected to batch
crystallization to produce nickel sulphate crystals (see photo in
Figure 1). Assays of the produced crystals are presented in
Table 3 along with a target specification for battery
applications. As clearly shown, the Baptiste product meets or
betters target specifications for all elements of interest.
Table 3 – Baptiste Nickel Sulphate Crystal Quality vs. Target
Specification
Element
|
Units
|
Nickel Sulphate
Crystals
|
Baptiste
Testwork
|
Target
Specification
|
Ni – Nickel
|
wt%
|
>22
|
>22
|
Al –
Aluminum
|
ppm
|
<1
|
<5
|
As – Arsenic
|
ppm
|
<1
|
<2
|
Ca – Calcium
|
ppm
|
<1
|
<5
|
Cd – Cadmium
|
ppm
|
<1
|
<1
|
Co – Cobalt
|
ppm
|
1
|
<50
|
Cr –
Chromium
|
ppm
|
<1
|
<3
|
Cu – Copper
|
ppm
|
<1
|
<3
|
Fe – Iron
|
ppm
|
1
|
<3
|
K –
Potassium
|
ppm
|
3
|
<10
|
Mg –
Magnesium
|
ppm
|
<1
|
<5
|
Mn –
Manganese
|
ppm
|
<1
|
<5
|
Na – Sodium
|
ppm
|
2
|
<20
|
Pb – Lead
|
ppm
|
<1
|
<2
|
Si – Silicon
|
ppm
|
<2
|
<10
|
Zn – Zinc
|
ppm
|
2
|
<5
|
With the completion of the hydrometallurgical testwork reported
herein, the Company has completed the PFS metallurgical test
program. The program has successfully validated the Baptiste
processing strategy and lead to optimization of the processing
flowsheet and key process parameters. Later in the second
quarter of 2023, following completion of the PFS process design,
the Company plans to issue another news release summarizing the
final recovery basis for Baptiste based on the PFS process
design.
References:
- Goldman Sachs Commodities Research, "Nickel's Class Divide",
April 28, 2022.
Qualified Person
Kyle Marte, P.Eng., FPX's
Principal Metallurgist and Qualified Person under NI 43-101, has
reviewed and approved the technical content of this news
release.
About the Decar Nickel
District
The Company's Decar Nickel District represents a large-scale
greenfield discovery of nickel mineralization in the form of a
naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy called awaruite
(Ni3Fe) hosted in an ultramafic/ophiolite complex.
FPX's mineral claims cover an area of 245 km2 west of
the Middle River and north of Trembleur Lake, in central British
Columbia. Awaruite mineralization has been identified in
several target areas within the ophiolite complex including the
Baptiste Deposit and the Van Target, as confirmed by drilling,
petrographic examination, electron probe analyses and outcrop
sampling. Since 2010, approximately US $28 million has been spent on the exploration and
development of Decar.
Of the four targets in the Decar Nickel District, the Baptiste
Deposit has been the focus of increasing resource definition (a
total of 99 holes and 33,700 m of
drilling completed), as well as environmental and engineering
studies to evaluate its potential as a bulk-tonnage open pit mining
project. The Baptiste Deposit is located within the Baptiste
Creek watershed, on the traditional and unceded territory of
Tl'azt'en Nation and Binche Whut'en First Nation, and within
several Tl'azt'enne and Binche Whut'enne keyohs. FPX has conducted
mineral exploration activities to date subject to the conditions of
our agreements with the Nations and keyoh holders.
About FPX Nickel Corp.
FPX Nickel Corp. is focused on the exploration and
development of the Decar Nickel District, located in central
British Columbia, and other
occurrences of the same unique style of naturally occurring
nickel-iron alloy mineralization known as awaruite.
On behalf of FPX Nickel Corp.
"Martin Turenne"
Martin Turenne, President, CEO and
Director
Forward-Looking
Statements
Certain of the statements made and information contained
herein is considered "forward-looking information" within the
meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. These
statements address future events and conditions and so involve
inherent risks and uncertainties, as disclosed in the Company's
periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. Actual
results could differ from those currently projected. The
Company does not assume the obligation to update any
forward-looking statement.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of
this release.
SOURCE FPX Nickel Corp.