Ardea Resources has tested investor support for its nickel-cobalt laterite development plans for the first time in four years.

The company is on the hunt for up to A$7 million in funding at 60c per share, a 12% discount, and it has found support, with Petra Capital securing commitments for a $5 million placement.

A further $2 million is being sought via a share purchase plan on the same terms.

The cash will be used to finalise a Goongarrie hub definitive feasibility study, pre-commitment works, and an assessment of a possible second Kalpini hub development.

Managing director Andrew Penkethman said the support from new and existing institutional and sophisticated investors was promising amid renewed support for nickel developments, with a recent rally in nickel prices towards US$18,000 per tonne.  Cobalt prices have also risen to around $56,000/t.

The placement follows indicative letters of support for up to A$1 billion in funding from Export Finance Australia and the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Penkethman said the extra funding, the first since Ardea raised $21.5 million at 70c in 2022, would allow the company to finalise the DFS with its consortium partners.

Sumitomo and Mitsubishi have the option of earning a combined 50% of Goongarrie and buying 75% of the planned production.

Penkethman told MNN the company had long expected the dour sentiment towards nickel stocks would turn, and with expectations of a deficit emerging by the end of the decade, he believed the Goongarrie development was well-placed to emerge as a major new source of Western nickel and cobalt

"We've spent 20 years fine-tuning this. These things do take time," he said.

"What I think the market really doesn't understand is that our partners have looked at nickel projects around the world. They have the expertise and balance sheet that could have seen them go anywhere. 

"They chose us."

He noted Ardea's Japanese partners had never wavered since taking an interest in Goongarrie in 2024.

The Japanese government is also considered a possible funding partner alongside EXIM and EFA.

The DFS was originally expected late last year, but Penkethman said there was such a huge body of work to be collated that the final report was now expected by June. 

The project is expected to produce 30,000tpa nickel and 2000tpa cobalt within a mixed hydroxide precipitate.

Penkethman said while it was almost a given that the prefeasibility capex estimate of some $3 billion would be increased, he said operating costs would be the most important number.

"It's still too early to say, but Goongarrie needs to be cost-competitive," he said.

Penkethman is optimistic that the company has done everything it can to give Goongarrie the best chance of development.

Delivery of the DFS will spark a three-month review process by the partners, with the hope of moving into front-end engineering and design phase and final permitting.

While the market has been chilly to nickel stocks for the past few years, Penkethman said changes in supply and demand suggested the market may be able to support two large nickel projects at Kalgoorlie, which is why the Kalpini hub has been dusted off.

"Once we can get Goongarrie into production, then everything looks different," Penkethman said.

The Goongarrie hub has reserves of 194.1 million tonnes at 0.70% nickel and 0.05% cobalt for 1.36Mt contained nickel and 99,000t contained cobalt, within the wider Kalgoorlie Nickel Project's resources of 854Mt at 0.71% nickel and 0.045% cobalt for 6.1Mt of contained nickel and 386,000t of cobalt.

Ardea shares have traded between 36c and 77c over the past year.

The stock was off 10% today to 61c, capitalising the company at $129 million.