For thousands of other reports visit RSC's Mineral Intellingence Map
Western Areas Ltd.
Summary
| Project: | Cosmos Nickel Complex | |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit: | Neptune | |
| Location: | Australia | |
| Commodities: | Nickel | |
| Date: | 10/30/2018 | |
| Report Code: | JORC | |
| Report Type: | Exploration/Drilling Update | |
| Project Stage: | Pursuing Environmental Approval | |
| Report details: | 30-10-2018: Western Areas Ltd. announces an Exploration/Drilling Update report for its Neptune deposit at the Cosmos Nickel Complex project. Drilling results incl. 65.3m @ 0.7% Ni from 667m + annual statement of resource. Western Areas (“WSA” or the “Comp | |
| Resources: | (Resource, Total): 63.261Mt @ 0.9% Ni for 592kt Ni contained at Cosmos | |
| CP/QP: | [Overall Report]: Andre Wulfse, Marco Orunesu Preiata, Graeme Gribbin (Internal) | |
| ABSTRACT: | Western Areas (“WSA” or the “Company”) (ASX: WSA) is pleased to report an excellent start to the year, with operations on track and significant development activity comprising early works at Cosmos, new primary ventilation fans installed and commissioned at Spotted Quoll and the new filtration and bagging facilities at the MREP completed on time and budget. Mine grades at both Spotted Quoll and Flying Fox were ahead of plan and reserve for the quarter which resulted in less material movements to produce 5,868 nickel tonnes in ore. Cosmic Boy concentrator throughput was in line with plan and, with 89% recovery, delivered its highest quarterly concentrate production in nine months at 5,379 nickel tonnes. A key focus for the quarter was completion of the Odysseus DFS at Cosmos, which was released post quarter end. The study highlights a long mine life, low cash operating cost and low sustaining capital expenditure operation. Using nickel prices currently lower than consensus forecasts the projected economic outcomes are excellent, but also importantly demonstrate that the Project is well funded from existing cash reserves for a number of years. There are also significant upside opportunities for the Company to investigate, including a mining optimisation study of the adjacent AM5 and AM6 deposits which contain 57.6kt of nickel classified in the Indicated Mineral Resource category. The MREP has commenced its ramp‐up mode from commissioning and is continuing to produce in line with specification. A number of small samples were sent to potential customers in early October, and a container with 20t of product was prepared as a bulk trial for export. The nickel price remains volatile, with geo‐political factors putting further downward pressure on the market during the quarter, despite nickel fundamentals being strong for stainless steel and future battery demand growth. LME nickel stockpiles have fallen to around 220kt, down over 40kt from the prior quarter, demonstrating that demand continues to outstrip supply. Post quarter end, Western Areas attended the 2018 LME Conference where these views were reinforced by all commentators and analysts. LME week was also an excellent opportunity to meet existing and potential new customers for nickel concentrate with our current contracts having just over 12 months to run. | |
Full Report
opaxe is a smart software platform that reconfigures and redistributes information and produces business insights to help mining professionals and investors make better decisions. We utilise technology and machine learning for data collection and human intelligence for the value-added services.
Full Report