Ivanhoe Electric has concluded a deal that helps it earn into 60% of the Samapleu-Grata Nickel-Copper project in the Côte d'Ivoire.

The project is held as a joint venture (JV) with Sama Resources.

The Samapleu-Grata Nickel-Copper Project, located around 600km from Abidjan, spans an area of approximately 835km².

This project's advancement is a result of Ivanhoe Electric fulfilling the terms of the earn-in agreement by investing C$25m ($18.4m) by March 2024, as per the binding term sheet, which was formalised in March 2021.

On 21 March 2024, Sama Resources, Ivanhoe Electric's JV partner, released a new preliminary economic assessment for the project (2024 PEA).

This assessment projects a conventional open-pit mining operation with 86.5 million tonnes of modelled mill feed and 1.62 million tonnes of direct shipped laterite material from various deposits within the project area.

The life-of-mine production estimates for the Samapleu-Grata Nickel-Copper Project include an annual average of 38,627 tonnes (t) of a 26% copper concentrate and 55,119t of a 13% nickel concentrate.

The processing plant, designed with a capacity of 5.48 million tonnes per year, will utilise conventional flotation methods to produce separate copper and nickel concentrates, with cobalt, platinum, palladium and gold as byproducts.

Ivanhoe Electric president and CEO Taylor Melvin said: “We are pleased to have completed our earn-in to 60% of the Samapleu-Grata Nickel-Copper Project.

“We are particularly encouraged by the significant improvement in both the quality and quantity of potential future copper concentrate production at the project compared to earlier studies.

“The results announced by our joint venture partner, Sama, are a product of the hard work by our dedicated joint team. We look forward to working together with Sama on the next steps for our high-quality nickel-copper project.”