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The Wowo Gap project is located on EL 1165 in Oro Province, approximately 200 kilometres east of Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. The nearest town, Wanigela, situated approximately 35 kilometres from EL1165 on Collingwood Bay.
Since closing the acquisition of Wowo Gap in mid-2023, IEM, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, hired a local manager and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with MCC Ramu for an offtake to supply the Ramu refining plant (the only nickel refining plant in PNG).
The Wowo Gap deposit is a nickel/cobalt bearing laterite formed as a result of deep weathering of ultramafic rocks in the Papuan Ultramafic Belt (PUB). The laterite profile typically ranges from 10m to 19m in thickness and consists of an upper iron-rich saprolite horizon (referred to as limonite) with high (>40%) to very high (>60%) Fe2O3 content but relatively low (<6%) MgO. This limonite horizon contains enriched levels of cobalt, chromium, and manganese. Beneath the limonite is the MgO-rich (>6 – 40%) earthy saprolite horizon with relatively low (<40%) Fe2O3 content, followed by the rocky saprolite (saprock) in the regolith profile.
The drilled laterite covers an area of 8700 meters N-S by 3300 to 4000 meters E-W. The average thickness of the laterite above the rocky saprolite is approximately 7 meters, with a maximum thickness of 19 meters.
Using a 0.7% nickel cut-off grade, the Wowo Gap Nickel Laterite deposit is estimated to contain 110 million tonnes at 0.81% nickel (Ni) for 0.9 million tonnes of contained Ni and 0.06% cobalt (Co) for 66,000 tonnes of contained Co.
The ownership structure of Wowo Gap project is:
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