Western Areas gets environmental approval for open-pit nickel mine
Nickel sulphide explorer Western Areas has been granted the final consent by the Western Australian Minister for the Environment, to create an openpit mine at its Spottel Quoll nickel operation.
Construction of the site infrastructure would now start, and the prestrip of the openpit would begin in October. The company reported on Friday that the first ore production was expected during March or April next year, and would coincide with the completion of the Cosmic Boy nickel concentrator.
The Spotted Quoll deposit was discovered in 2007, and a mineral resource of about two-million tons, at an average grade of 6,2% nickel containing 125 500 t nickel has already been defined down to the 650 m vertical depth.
The ore reserve for the Spotted Quoll openpit is estimated at around 386 000 t at an average grade of 5,1% nickel containing 19 900 t nickel. Target production was 8 500 t nickel during 2010 and 9 800 t nickel in 2011.
Western Areas noted that the openpit was expected to be a robust project with estimated cash costs of less than $2/lb nickel in concentrate. The total life-of-mine capital cost, including surface infrastructure, was estimated to be A$36-million.
The 150-m deep openpit represented only 16% of total contained nickel in the current mineral resource, and a feasibility study was in progress for an underground mine, which was planned to be accessed from the openpit. A site for the decline portal has already been defined and underground development was expected to start in early 2011.
The openpit would employ over 80 people during development and to 65 people during sustained production.
