Poseidon Nickel has announced it will re-open Western Australia’s historic Windarra Nickel Mine after a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) demonstrated the project’s ‘robust’ viability due to low capital and operational costs.
Located 260km north east of Kalgoorlie, the mine was at the centre on WA’s Nickel boom in the early 1970s until global nickel prices fell at the end of the decade.
Poseidon Nickel says it expects average annual production of 9,600 tonnes of contained nickel in concentrate at an average operating cost of US$3.35/lb over an initial 10 year life of mine (net of gold credits).
An additional gold processing facility is also estimated to produce over 45,000 ounces of gold in the first three years
The Project is scheduled to be ready to meet projected supply shortfalls in 2014/2015. Pre-start project capital cost has been estimated by the company at A$197 million.
Poseidon’s Managing Director, Mr David Singleton, said the Company’s objective was to immediately move to finance completion, construction and production.
“We are in the fortunate position of expecting to have two-thirds of the required capital items secured in signed contracts by the time financing is completed.
We see the timing of the Project as significant, with Windarra’s development in parallel with widely held expectations of a substantial recovery in nickel price and demand.”
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