Top Australian miners Rio Tinto and South32, along with Anglo American are understood to have moved on from Chalice Mining ahead of the deadline for first round bids in the coming weeks.
Indicative offers were initially due on August 21 but will now be received on September 11 in a sale process set to conclude around the end of the year at the earliest.
Sources say that the focus for the $2.2bn Australian listed Chalice will be gaining investment from a battery manufacturer or electric vehicle manufacture to offer tactical opportunities for the company downstream.
Operators could provide the expertise and capital, but would not be as strategic for Chalice.
One of the deterrents for operators to pay a knock out price, say market observers, is that Chalice has somewhat of a grab bag of assets and is yet to gain access to state land.
It is also thought to have a limited volume of nickel in its assets.
It comes after Chalice Mining boss Alex Dorsch this week confirmed at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie that the company had received approaches from large and mid-cap Australian miners as part of its wide ranging process where it is exploring a full or partial sale.
DataRoom reported last month that Anglo American, South32, BHP and Rio Tinto were expected to be lining up for the $2.3bn nickel explorer and developer.
Mr Dorsch said offers had come from car and battery makers from North America, Japan, Korea and Europe as well as local mining groups.
He said the company was open to partnering with more than one party.
Chalice’s major green field discovery in early 2020 is the Gonneville Project in Western Australia, which hosts a mix of critical green metals required for decarbonisation including nickel, copper, cobalt, palladium and platinum.
It has 16 million ounces of platinum group elements, 860 thousand tonnes of nickel, 520,000 tonnes of copper and 83,000 tonnes of cobalt and is in the feasibility and permitting phase.
The company said it makes it one of the largest recent nickel sulphide discoveries globally and the largest platinum elements discovery in Australia.
Also in early exploration is its Julimar Nickel-Copper-Platinum Group element exploration project in the West Yilgarn province in Western Australia
Chalice counts well known mining identity Tim Goyder as its 9 per cent shareholder, and sources believe Mr Goyder is open to a sale.
Chalice reported a net loss of $33.7m for the six months to December and is looking for a backer to fund its development through Standard Chartered.
But some believe the process could result in an acquisition of the company as a whole.
Sources say Chalice is open to several options, including a partial sale of about 20 per cent of the group, or 100 per cent.
Mr Dorsch said the company had deliberately kept the process wide ranging.
He said customers were looking at sourcing more product from Western jurisdictions.
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