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Alex Dorsch
Alex Dorsch CHN.AX
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Chalice Mining
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RRS Gold Coast 2026 - From the Helm: Chalice Mining

📅 Sep 14, 2026 Resources Rising Stars 11 MIN 322 VIEWS 25 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS

What Alex Dorsch said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Alex Dorsch, Managing Director of Chalice Mining, discussed the company's Gonneville project, a platinum group metals, nickel, copper, and cobalt deposit near Perth, WA. He highlighted the PFS outlining a 23-year open pit, about $250 million spent to date, and aims for FID in 18-24 months. Dorsch described a two-stage development with first production in 2030, starting with a 5 million tonne per annum throughput. He noted palladium prices have fallen to about $1,300/oz while copper is strong, and sees hybrids and data centers as supporting PGM demand, citing RCF's estimate of new palladium demand. He emphasized the advantage of being 70 km from Perth, supporting 3,700 jobs. Recent team additions include Odin Partnership as advisers and Paul Deane as project director. He expects a DFS in Q3 next year, with financing and approvals targeted for first half 2028.

Key takeaways

  1. Chalice aims for FID in 18-24 months, targeting first production from Gonneville in 2030.
  2. Palladium price dropped from $2,000-3,000/oz to about $1,300/oz, shifting focus to copper in the mine plan.
  3. RCF estimates 0.5-1.5 million ounces of new palladium demand from data centers by 2030.
  4. Gonneville will support about 3,700 jobs, mostly local, due to proximity to Perth.
  5. DFS targeted for Q3 next year, with 8-week continuous pilot of full flow sheet this year.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
23-year Open pit phase outlined in PFS timeline 0:27
$250 million Spent on discovery and project to date metric 0:27
18 to 24 months Timeline to FID timeline 0:27
5 million tonne per annum Stage one process throughput metric 1:15
2030 First production year timeline 1:15
1,300 US Current palladium price per ounce price 2:13
half a million and 1.5 million ounces a year New palladium demand from data centers by 2030 (RCF estimate) metric 3:36
3,700 jobs Jobs supported by the project metric 6:15
8-week Continuous pilot duration timeline 9:07
60% Pre-production capex from senior debt metric 9:07

Chapters

  1. 0:00Project overview and PFS results
  2. 1:15Development strategy and timeline
  3. 2:13Commodity shifts and metal mix
  4. 3:36PGM market outlook and demand drivers
  5. 6:15Advantages of location near Perth
  6. 7:30Recent team appointments
  7. 9:07Path to FID: DFS, financing, approvals

Questions asked in this interview

7
  1. 0:20For investors who may not be aware of the Chalice story, can you give us an update on what you've been doing the last 12 months and what the company does?
  2. 1:03What's the development strategy here and what's the timeline to production?
  3. 1:57How has the importance of each of those shifted since you started the project to kind of the wave of the commodity cycle right now?
  4. 3:26Now, can you talk us through the market fundamentals and outlook for palladium and platinum in particular, and the key drivers of the outlook for this project for those two elements in particular?
  5. 5:57So what is the advantage of having the mine just 70 k's from Perth, infrastructure-wise?
  6. 7:17Can you tell us about your recent appointments and how important that's been?
  7. 8:52Finally, what are the major technical and commercial milestones between now and the final investment decision or feasibility?
Grady Wolf 0:03 ↗
Hello and welcome to another episode of our From the Helm series, live here at the Gold Coast Resources Rising Stars Conference this 2026. I'm Grady Wolf. Alex Dorsch, Chalice Mining Managing Director, a familiar face on our show here. Thanks for joining us again today.
Alex Dorsch 0:20 ↗
Thanks, Grady.
Grady Wolf 0:20 ↗
For investors who may not be aware of the Chalice story, can you give us an update on what you've been doing the last 12 months and what the company does?
Alex Dorsch 0:27 ↗
Yep. So we've got a major platinum group metal, nickel, copper, cobalt project just outside of Perth in WA. Put a PFS out end of last year. Outlined at least a 23-year open pit phase. Great economics. Technically very well understood now. Spent about $250 million on the discovery, the deposit, and the project to date. So we're looking to take an FID in the next sort of 18 to 24 months and then turn it into a very long-life mining project and hopefully a very successful critical minerals mine just outside of Perth.
Grady Wolf 1:03 ↗
That it will be. And so the challenge now is turning this huge resource that you've spent a lot of time technically planning out into a mining operation. What's the development strategy here and what's the timeline to production?
Alex Dorsch 1:15 ↗
So we're looking at a two-stage development. First stage being constructed 2028-29. It's a big deposit, so it doesn't really — we don't want to make it too big such that it has a capex hurdle that we can't get over. So we have the ability to sort of mine it in a slightly smaller scale to begin with from surface, and then add capital to it over time. So we've scoped at least two stages in the PFS. Stage one's a 5 million tonne per annum process throughput, and that's first production 2030. So selling two concentrates, a copper con and nickel con, as well as some PGM doré as well.
Grady Wolf 1:57 ↗
It's all coming through at the moment. Now, talking about Gonneville, it does contain palladium, platinum, nickel, copper, cobalt, lots of elements there. How has the importance of each of those shifted since you started the project to kind of the wave of the commodity cycle right now?
Alex Dorsch 2:13 ↗
Yeah, when we made the discovery, palladium was trading sort of 2 to 3,000 US an ounce. It's come back quite a way, now trading at sort of 1,300 US. Copper has obviously gone very, very strong. So I guess, yeah, there has been a lot more focus on copper. Can we sort of front-end and bring forward some of the copper or the richer copper material in the mine plan? Nickel, I guess now as the third payable element or the third largest revenue contributor, still in a bit of an oversupply situation, but we're starting to see sort of the beginnings of what we hope is sort of a lift off the bottom of the cycle, heavily driven by Indonesian policy and sort of what's going on there with Chinese investment going into Indonesia lately. That's looking a little bit shaky. So, yeah, so definitely it's palladium number one, but copper number two, and then sort of nickel, cobalt, platinum, gold obviously flying as well. So we've got the benefit of some fantastic byproduct credits, what will be, you know, a nice diverse revenue mix.
Grady Wolf 3:26 ↗
Yeah, absolutely. Now, can you talk us through the market fundamentals and outlook for palladium and platinum in particular, and the key drivers of the outlook for this project for those two elements in particular?
Alex Dorsch 3:36 ↗
Yes. So I think the consensus for PGMs is there's going to be demand destruction because everyone's going to buy an electric vehicle, and certainly that's the way it has been for the last few years. And then I think sort of starting in 2024-25 there was a realization that outside of China there might be a period where consumers want a hybrid vehicle. And so obviously a hybrid vehicle still has the engine, actually requires more PGMs, more platinum and palladium in the equivalent versus a pure internal combustion vehicle. So we see this very, very long sort of extension of PGM demand now because of that hybrid, I guess, transition. And hybrids are still lower cost, you know, there's more flexibility, not relying on charging infrastructure, so there's a lot to like about hybrids as a bridge technology. So we think that underpins sort of 20 years of PGM demand. The other point is data centers, so electronics. Being there's a lot more familiarity now and a lot more of like independent voices saying gold, silver, platinum, palladium. There's actually a lot of these precious metals in these data centers as well because they're very conductive metals. They're very versatile. They are needed in order to play their small little role in data centers. So RCF just came out the other week and said between half a million and 1.5 million ounces a year of demand, new demand for palladium from data centers by 2030.
Grady Wolf 5:09 ↗
Wow.
Alex Dorsch 5:10 ↗
So it is a material that's like almost 20% of the market sort of number.

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APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Dorsch, A. (2026, September 14). RRS Gold Coast 2026 - From the Helm: Chalice Mining [Interview transcript]. Resources Rising Stars. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3040827/

MLA

Alex Dorsch. "RRS Gold Coast 2026 - From the Helm: Chalice Mining." Resources Rising Stars, 14 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3040827/.

BibTeX 
@misc{dorsch2026_3040827,
  author       = {Alex Dorsch},
  title        = {RRS Gold Coast 2026 - From the Helm: Chalice Mining},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Resources Rising Stars. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {sep},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3040827/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}