Ardea Resources Limited (Ardea or the Company) is pleased to provide an update on exploration activities within its Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP), Perrinvale Project and Bedonia Project in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
The Company tenement portfolio covers 4,200km2 and is one of the largest land holdings over nickel-hosting komatiite ultramafic stratigraphy in Australia. The significant land holding is also prospective for other economic mineralisation including Critical Minerals such as Lithium-Caesium-Tantalum (LCT) elements and Rare Earth Elements (REE).
These compelling magmatic nickel sulphide and Critical Mineral opportunities are being evaluated for their exploration potential. Of particular significance, exploration over the last 12 months has identified REE and LCT settings in association with nickel laterite occurrences. The ongoing KNP Goongarrie Hub feasibility work streams continue to be the Company priority. The current focus being the plant site sterilisation drilling, open pit mine design, resource optimisation to define an updated Ore Reserve, detailed engineering design, plant layout, defining capital and operating costs and quantifying the development sequence for process water bore fields. However compelling Critical Mineral and nickel sulphide exploration opportunities will also continue to be evaluated.
Managing Director and CEO Andrew Penkethman noted: 'Ardea's strategic tenement portfolio in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia remains underexplored, due to the historic focus on the globally significant KNP nickel-cobalt laterite resource. With Ardea's multi-element analysis of all exploration and project development samples, we are consistently seeing LCT and REE exploration opportunities. With the expansion of the technical team during 2022, we are now able to give these opportunities the exploration effort they warrant. The initial step has been to retain highly regarded consultants CSA to complete a review of our full Eastern Goldfields tenement portfolio for LCT and REE opportunities, in conjunction with internal assessments of nickel sulphide potential. Whilst KNP feasibility study work and advancing the Goongarrie Hub towards development as a major source of sustainable and ethical nickel-cobalt battery mineral supply is the main priority, Ardea is mindful of the significant value that exploration success can generate for the Company. On this basis, both feasibility study work and exploration on compelling targets will continue. In striking this balance, Ardea will maximise both development and exploration of Critical Mineral opportunities from its entire tenement portfolio and looks forward to keeping all stake holders informed on Company progress.
Ardea's strategic Eastern Goldfields Western Australia tenement package, focussed on ultramafic komatiite belts, is shown in Figure 1. Ardea has just conducted an initial assessment of pegmatite hosted Lithium-Caesium-Tantalum (LCT) potential across all the Company's Eastern Goldfields and KNP tenements using consulting firm CSA Global. Any rare earth element (REE) potential was also reviewed. The assessment of the KNP tenement package included a ranking for rare-element LCT pegmatite potential based on geological setting and known pegmatites. The highest ranked target is the Perrinvale Project (Figure 2), where multiple pegmatites have previously been mapped and several reconnaissance rock chip samples recently taken and submitted for assay (results awaited). Ardea also notes the ongoing rare-element LCT pegmatite exploration from several other ASX listed companies around the Company's Perrinvale tenure. Other priority areas were the Ghost Rocks, Highway and Goongarrie project areas (Figure 1, 2). Follow-up reviews were also recommended over tenements in the Yerilla Hub and Kalpini Hub including Bulong. Essentially any tenement located over an Archaean greenstone belt and within 10 km of an interpreted or known rare-element LCT pegmatite source granite (or in an area where potential source granites are likely to occur) was considered as having some potential for rare-element LCT pegmatites. The priority areas were selected due to the presence of interpreted source granites proximal to these tenements and any known LCT pegmatites in the region (notably south of Perrinvale). The next steps for the priority areas are to review internal and open-file data for previous recorded pegmatites, assessing if they are prospective for LCT mineralisation and completing onground mapping and sampling. At the Bedonia Project it was recommended to assess for ionic clay REE deposits in paleochannels or local lacustrine basins. The presence of lignite previously identified at Bedonia may indicate prospective basins in which REE may have accumulated, with REE mineralisation associated with these deposits elsewhere. A review of internal and external data will be completed to assess this prospectivity.
Contact:
Andrew Penkethman
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Tel: +61 8 6244 5136
About Ardea Resources
Ardea Resources Limited (ASX:ARL) is an ASX-listed nickel resources company, with a large portfolio of 100%- controlled West Australian-based projects, focussed on: * Development of the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP) and its sub-set the Goongarrie Hub, a globally significant series of nickel-cobalt and Critical Mineral deposits which host the largest nickel-cobalt resource in the developed world at 830Mt at 0.71% nickel and 0.046% cobalt for 5.9Mt of contained nickel and 380kt of contained cobalt (Ardea ASX releases 15 February, 16 June 2021), located in a jurisdiction with exemplary Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) credentials, notably environment. * Advanced-stage exploration at compelling nickel sulphide targets, such as Emu Lake, and Critical Minerals targets including scandium and Rare Earth Elements throughout the KNP Eastern Goldfields world-class nickel-gold province, with all exploration targets aimed at complementing the KNP nickel development strategy. Ardea's KNP development with its 5.9 million tonnes of contained nickel is the foundation of the Company, with the nickel sulphide exploration, such as Emu Lake, as an evolving contribution to Ardea's building of a green, forward-facing integrated nickel company. Put simply, in the Lithium Ion Battery sector, the Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage System battery customers demand an ESG-compliant, sustainable, and ethical supply chain for nickel and other inputs. In the wet tropics, with their signature HPAL submarine tailings disposal and rain forest habitat destruction, an acceptable ESG regime is problematic. In contrast, the world-class semi-arid, temperate KNP Great Western Woodlands with its benign environmental setting is likely the single greatest asset of the KNP. The KNP is located in a well established mining jurisdiction with absolute geopolitical acceptance and none of the land-use and societal conflicts that commonly characterise nickel laterite proposals elsewhere. All KNP Goongarrie Hub production tenure is on granted Mining Leases with Native Title Agreement in place.
Competent Persons statement
The information in this report that relates to planning and results for nickel sulphide exploration is based on information reviewed or compiled by Matthew McCarthy, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Mr McCarthy is a full-time employee of Ardea Resources Limited and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration, and to the activities undertaken, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr McCarthy consents to the inclusion in this report of the information in the form and context in which it appears. The information in this report that relates to planning and results for LCT pegmatite and REE exploration is based on information reviewed or compiled by Ralph Porter, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Mr Porter is a full-time employee of CSA Global and a consultant to Ardea Resources Limited and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration, and to the activities undertaken, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr Porter consents to the inclusion in this report of the information in the form and context in which it appears
ARDEA RESOURCES LIMITED 
