Name of the Project
Mill recovery enhancement project (MREP).

Location
Australia.

Client
Western Areas.

Project Description
The process associated with the proposed project has been developed for the specific purpose of treating Forrestania tailings.

The project will process one of the tailings streams from the flotation plant, which contain valuable amounts of nickel that cannot be recovered, into a saleable concentrate using traditional flotation methods. This stream will be leached at atmospheric pressure using the company’s BioHeap process in fibreglass tanks to recover the additional contained nickel.

The BioHeap process has been developed to operate at a pH of 3 to 3.5, which enables the removal of iron and other gangue elements during the leaching stage to form stable compounds for safe disposal in the Western Areas’ existing tailings storage facility.

A conventional thickener and filter are used for leach residue dewatering. The solids are discarded to tailings and the filtrate is passed to the sulphide precipitation circuit.

Sodium sulphide is used to recover the nickel from solution to produce a nickel product grading 45% to 50% nickel.

With the addition of some minor equipment, this high-grade product can be sold directly, or be combined with the current flotation nickel concentrate (14% to 16% nickel) to produce an overall higher-grade, premium nickel concentrate.

It will take seven days to produce a nickel concentrate for blending into existing material.

The project has been designed to add on to any existing flotation circuit to allow for the recovery of valuable metals, for example, nickel, copper and zinc, which cannot be recovered using conventional flotation.

Jobs to Be Created
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
The project will cost about A$17.5-million to complete. Western Areas plans to fund the MREP from existing cash reserves.

Duration
The project will take six months to complete, with first production of high-grade nickel sulphide (45% to 50% nickel grade) expected in the March quarter 2018.

Latest Developments
The process to produce refined nickel sulphate continues to evolve, with additional work planned over the next 12 months.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Western Areas, tel +61 8 9334 7777, fax +61 8 9486 7866 or email info@westernareas.com.au.