Ardea giant nickel project awarded WA lead agency status

Ardea Resources has received another official government nod for its Kalgoorlie nickel project’s (KNP) Goongarrie Hub, this time at the State level, after being awarded Lead Agency Status by the Western Australian government to streamline project approvals.

The status, granted by the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification (DEED), formally recognises the strategic importance of the Goongarrie Hub to WA’s critical minerals and battery materials ambitions.

The framework is designed to support projects of State importance through coordinated government facilitation and streamlined engagement across multiple agencies.

It is the latest government nod for what is arguably one of the most imposing nickel-cobalt inventories in the developed world.

The KNP lies within WA’s famed Eastern Goldfields and hosts a mammoth mineral resource of 854 million tonnes grading 0.71 per cent nickel and 0.045 per cent cobalt, totalling a colossal 6.1 million contained tonnes of nickel and 386,000 tonnes of cobalt.

It remains the largest undeveloped resource of its type in Australia.

The Goongarrie Hub is the centrepiece of the project, which is jointly owned with a consortium comprising Japanese industrial heavyweights Sumitomo Metal Mining and Mitsubishi Corporation. The hub itself contains 4 of the 6.1 million tonnes of contained nickel.

Ardea says it is in the final throes of an extensive definitive feasibility study over the hub, which is being bankrolled by the Japanese partners to the tune of up to $98.5 million, work which is expected to culminate in a final investment decision at Goongarrie, scheduled for later this year.

Ardea Resources chief executive officer and managing director Andrew Penkethman said: “Lead Agency Status provides an important framework for coordinated engagement as we continue advancing studies, approvals and stakeholder engagement activities for the KNP – Goongarrie Hub, which now enjoys whole-of-Government support including the Commonwealth.”

The company says its latest endorsement from the WA Government adds another layer to the project’s considerable public backing, which already includes Federal Major Project Status, inclusion in Canberra’s Investor Front Door initiative and recognition in a high-level Australia-Japan joint statement on critical minerals cooperation.

Importantly, the project has also locked in a whopping $1 billion in financing through a conditional letter of support from Export Finance Australia and the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Beyond the main Goongarrie development, Ardea holds an unencumb