Mining Weekly reported that London listed Nordic miner Talvivaara plc which plans to produce its first nickel metal in October using bio heap leaching is also targeting platinum group metals production.
Mr Pekka Perä CEO of Talvivaara told Mining Weekly Online that platinum group metals are known to be present in the region's geology. He said that the region's platinum group metals geology is very similar to that of Arctic Platinum, where South Africa's Gold Fields explored and where Perä was also previously active. He said that "That geology is very similar to what we have here adding that both are palladium dominant with palladium being four times more prevalent than platinum.”
On the future direction of the company, Mr Perä said that Talvivaara plc has no ambition to remain a single operation company in the next five years. He said that "Either we would not exist or we will have several operations.”
The company's metals plant, still being constructed, is able to treat poly metallic concentrate using the bio heap leaching methods, which is a natural process that is merely accelerated and amplified. He said that "We have a lot of free iron in the solution and we can treat all types of arsenic compounds.” He added that the plant is easily expandable and accommodates all kinds of base metals and even PGMs, which means there is a wide range of possibilities for the company.
Talvivaara extracts nickel from one of the largest known sulphide nickel deposits in Europe and recovers zinc, copper and cobalt along the way, current cobalt prices alone paying for a large slice of costs. It hopes also to recover manganese.
