Chalice Mining has provided an update on its pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the Gonneville project located near Perth in Western Australia.
The project has seen significant improvements in metal recoveries from flotation and carbon-in-leach (CIL) processes, with testwork revealing the added potential to produce a saleable iron by-product derived predominantly from magnetite.
The iron product graded 64–66 per cent iron (Fe) with low impurities.
Building on a metallurgical breakthrough revealed in February 2025, Chalice has completed testwork and mass balances on all Gonneville sulphide mine composites.
“We have now achieved several step changes in process performance in the last few months,” Chalice managing director and chief executive officer Alex Dorsch said.
“These cumulative improvements in recoveries, operating costs, and now potentially a new iron by-product, represent likely gamechangers for the world-class Gonneville project.”
With the company remaining financially strong, with $83 million in cash and listed investments, Dorsch expects even further improvements in project margins for the bulk open-pit mine.
“We have now established a far superior flowsheet that opens up a bulk open pit mine plan, with a very low strip ratio, at bottom-of-the-cycle metals prices,” he said.
Geological modelling is underway to better quantify the iron and magnetite in the deposit, which will support the PFS’s completion by the fourth quarter of 2025.
Chalice continues to engage with potential strategic offtake partners and is collaborating with Mitsubishi Corporation to explore marketing and offtake solutions under a non-binding MoU.
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