Comet Minerals Director Hugh Morgan said one of his companies have developed a process to recover 100% of the contained nickel in the mineralization at its Titan project in Nigeria, The Australian reported Sept. 9.
The private Australian nickel explorer was trying to complete a maiden resource estimate back in 2017 at Titan, where mineralization occurs in the form of small nickel balls, but was unable to assay the mineralization with conventional methods.
Morgan did not share details of the process, but said it does not include the use of toxic chemicals such as cyanide and may not require the use of tailings dams.
He said the new technique was also successfully tested on gold and copper mineralization, and may have significant ramifications for the industry and broader commercial applications.
"Importantly for our nickel, it allows us to do an assay process, a JORC assessment, which we couldn't do before, and now we step into plant design," Morgan said.
