Lunnon Metals (LM8.AX) has completed an updated metallurgical test program on the Baker deposit, which is part of its Kambalda nickel project. The current resources at Baker stand at 929,000 tonnes at an average grade of 3.3% nickel for about 30,800 tonnes of nickel (almost 70 million pounds). A substantial portion of the resource is actually part of the reserves which contains 612,000 tonnes of rock at an average grade of 2.86% nickel for a total of just over 38 million pounds of nickel.
The grade is excellent but it’s obviously important to make sure the nickel can actually be recovered from the host rock. The updated test work confirmed an increased recovery rate of 95.1% for the BOF01 domain and about 84.4% for the BOF02 domain which are an increase of in excess of 3% and about 1% compares to the previous test work.
Lunnon considers the positive results to be the proof the company’s data driven approach to derisking Bakar is working. The data from the met work will now be used to update the resource estimate and the company expects a positive impact on tonnage, grade and metal content. Additionally, the impurities appear to be low as Lunnon confirmed the arsenic levels in the concentrate are extremely low so this bodes well for the potential economics at Baker.
And as a reminder, the entire Kambalda nickel district now contains just under 2.9 million tonnes of rock at an average grade of 3.1% nickel for a total nickel content of 87,800 tonnes (which is just under 200 million pounds of nickel).
Disclosure: The author has no position in Lunnon Metals. Please read our disclaimer.
