QGC has announced its cooperation with African Nickel Limited (ANL) as a major investor with the exclusive right to purchase a majority interest in ANL. QGC has formed this joint venture as part of its ongoing efforts to revolutionise the mining sector in Southern Africa.
QGC has established itself as one of South Africa’s premier independent commodity, logistics, and investment firms, with the goal of ensuring a sustainable future in mining.
“Until the goal of exclusively renewable energy is realized in South Africa, we are committed to the diligent and responsible extraction and processing of our products, always having a healthy appetite for new technologies and processes aimed at reducing any adverse environmental impact and waste,” says QGC CEO Quinton van der Burgh.
With this in mind, QGC is partnering, investing, and cooperating with firms in the renewable metals area to underline the notion of sustainability.
ANL is one of such companies, created in 2006 by Rudolph de Bruin and Dr David Twist in response to the rising demand for nickel. According to ANL, all sectors of the economy, particularly the Great Green Energy Transition, require key minerals such as nickel.
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What Is Special About Nickle?
When treated properly, nickel is a non-consumable natural resource. It can be totally recycled indefinitely with no loss of quality. ANL offers a unique chance to move four nickel projects up the value curve in a market with tremendous potential due to ANL’s Nickel Sulphide resources and their relationship with clean energy and EV batteries, which are fundamentally supported by the predicted rise in EV markets. Nickel is projected to be in high demand for the foreseeable future.
ANL highlights that Mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), an intermediate nickel product produced from nickel sulphide ore, has been gaining popularity due to a lower environmental impact than Mixed sulphate precipitate (MSP), lower Opex than Ni briquette or oxide, as it is an intermediary in the process, and decreasing discounts to the LME Nickel price.
African Nickel Limited (ANL) Nickle Portfolio
ANL has a portfolio of four nickel assets in South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia that are well-positioned to capitalize on present and future growing nickel demand.
ANL is now conducting bench scale tests on an ore sample from its Bon Accord project to demonstrate the extraction of nickel using processes with lower energy usage and processing costs through efficient and eco-conscious extraction technologies. Orion, the project’s managing partner, is considering a different nickel refining procedure for the Jacomyns Pan Project. Orion owns 50% of the project, and the chosen method will use chemical vapour technology, which requires no water, uses little energy, emits almost no emissions, and has a very tiny surface area.
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ANL has a great potential to enhance its attributable resource, particularly at the Kunene project, which has all the makings of a large nickel find. In addition to earlier exploration activity at the Kunene project, ANL will begin a thorough exploration program in Q1 2023 focused on growing the resource base and upgrading the Kunene resource classification. Bench scale testing to establish the most effective and environmentally sustainable option for the Kunene project will begin by the end of Q1 2023.
ANL has also made headway with its bench scale testing on the Bon Accord bulk sample, with pre-concentration test findings exceeding expectations. Flotation testing is now underway and will be followed by downstream processing testing with BIOX and POX technology. Following the conclusion of these experiments, a trade-off study will be conducted to find the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly mining and processing method.