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Giga Announces Internal Analysis of Turnagain Project vs HPAL Projects
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 3, 2020) - Martin Vydra, President of ...
About this update from Giga Metals Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"Giga Announces Internal Analysis of Turnagain Project vs HPAL ProjectsVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 3, 2020) - Martin Vydra, President of Giga Metals Corp. (TSXV: GIGA), today provided a summary of an internal analysis that compares Giga's Turnagain project to High Pressure, High Temperature Acid Leach (HPAL) projects both producing and in development. \"Our Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), announced October 28, 2020, modelled a mine that would produce an average of 33,000 tonnes per year of nickel over a mine life of 37 years with marginal economics at current nickel prices,\" said Mr. Vydra. \"The nickel would be contained in an exceptionally clean sulphide concentrate grading 18% nickel and 1% cobalt, suitable for smelting and refining into Class I nickel, as modelled in the PEA. We are also planning to conduct further testwork to confirm the amenability of Turnagain concentrate to direct refining via hydrometallurgy into recovered nickel suitable for the battery industry whether it be powder, briquettes or sulphate. We note that Sherritt International's Fort Saskatchewan refinery, Voisey's Bay Long Harbor refinery and BHP's Kwinana refinery were all designed to directly refine nickel concentrates of similar composition.\"Mr. Vydra added, \"One of the key benefits of Turnagain is the ability of the waste residue to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. This is supported by Dr. Greg Dipple's work at UBC and Giga Metals will be advancing work in 2021 in an effort to quantify the sequestration in order that data can be applied to future technical reports. In speaking to OEM's, battery manufacturers and institutional investors, the potential for Turnagain to be a carbon neutral nickel mine without the need to purchase offset credits has significant value. This value is not reflected in the basic economic analysis conducted in the PEA. Aside from the potential to be able to generate revenue from selling excess CO2 credits, investors and consumers wishing to secure carbon neutral and ethical nickel have indicated that they would ascribe a premium to a nickel mine that was genuinely carbon neutral.\"A market study by Wood Mackenzie estimates that demand for nickel from battery manufacturers will rise from a current 170,000 tonnes per year (2019) to 700,000 tonnes per year by 2030 and to 1,600,000 tonnes per...