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NICKEL CONFERENCE REVIEW

Survival mode no longer: Nickel West

HP Ltd hasn’t held back on its com- feed source into that [BHP’s Kambalda] is exploring designs that will best deliver
Bmitment to its Nickel West division. concentrator,” Mincor managing director the grinding capacity needed to increase
Having only endorsed the proposal in David Southam said when the deal was throughput.
May to retain Nickel West as a key pil- announced during Diggers & Dealers “We expect that incrementally expand-
lar of its business, the shackles are off this year. ing the mill capacity to 12 mtpa will take
BHP’s nickel assets in Western Australia Southam said material was likely to be place in the existing flotation circuit.
and growth plans are in motion. delivered from the brand-new Cassini However, beyond 12 mtpa we will require
“To get to this point we had to dig deep. mine along with Durkin North and Long, a change to our flotation circuit. We have
For Nickel West to be part of the BHP with opportunities afoot to reopen mines been exploring options and one of the
portfolio it had to meet or at least have which have been shuttered. most promising is the staged flotation re-
the potential to meet and deliver on the As Mincor works on its strategy to help actors,” Stokes said.
corporate strategy, which is to have the revive the Kambalda nickel district, Nick- Furthermore, the company will keep a
best capabilities, the best commodities, el West is forging ahead with mine devel- close eye on the Spence copper opera-
the best assets to create long-term value opments of its own at Mt Keith. tion in Chile to see if it can leverage from
and high returns,” BHP Nickel West head Yakabindie gained State Government technology applied at that mine.
of integrated operations Karl Stokes told approval in February and will be Nickel “It is a great opportunity to use tech-
delegates at the Australian Nickel Con- West’s newest open cut at Mt Keith. nology proven in BHP’s global opera-
ference. Integral to the mine’s go-ahead was tions and we will be closely monitoring
In making a case for Nickel West’s vi- striking a landmark agreement with the commissioning of the Spence project to
Traditional Owners – determine if this is the right solution for
Tjiwarl people – and a Nickel West,” Stokes said.
commitment to engage The company has managed to make
as many local people some inroads at the Kwinana refinery
at the project as pos- where a third production record – FY19
sible. finished at 74,000t refined nickel – was
Stokes was pleased reported recently despite the smelter fire
to report that many Tji- disrupting feed for several months.
warl people had been Stokes said the result at Kwinana came
employed and Nickel from an ongoing programme of low-cost
West was operating debottlenecking and transformative ini-
ahead of expectation tiatives.
on the engagement “That continues to unlock capacity
front at Yakabindie, through small investments, automation
where first ore to the Mt and simply better operating practices.
Keith concentrator is We want to grow Kwinana’s capacity to
expected in December. use all our produced and smelted nickel
“I am delighted to in Kalgoorlie and cease exporting our
tell you that first ore products,” Stokes said, adding that it
from Yakabindie was aimed to replicate the success in Kwi-
Karl Stokes
exposed earlier this nana at its Kalgoorlie smelter.
ability, there was much work done on month at the Six Mile Well pit. About “The team at Kalgoorlie have devel-
demonstrating the promising future for 60% of the 20mt of pre-strip has been oped a pipeline of projects with the poten-
nickel sulphides in which the electrifica- excavated already and a 17km haul road tial to increase throughput significantly, I
tion of transport was top of the agenda. from Yakabindie to Mt Keith will reach expect this time next year to be able to
“In our mine-to-market integrated busi- practical completion in the coming days share the improvements that have been
ness channels, all this ore through the in preparation for a fleet of contracted off made as well as the next suite of projects
refinery we are now selling three quar- highway road trains to commence haul- that will take Kalgoorlie further forward.”
ters of the nickel produced to the battery ing ore to the Mt Keith concentrator be- Both the Kwinana refinery and Kalgoor-
metals market,” Stokes said. fore the end of the year,” Stokes said. lie smelter will be shutdown for sched-
The refreshed Nickel West outfit had From FY21, Yakabindie will be the uled “major quadrennial maintenance”
been initially focused on new mine devel- main source of feed to Mt Keith. in the December quarter, however, guid-
opments in the Northern Goldfields, but “Many in the room will remember when ance for FY2020 remains unchanged
Stokes said attention was now turning to Mt Keith started production in 1992 at a and production expected to be “broadly”
beefing up capacity through its smelter in head grade of 0.8% nickel and produc- in line with FY2019.
Kambalda. tion was greater than 50,000 tpa. How- For the quarter ended September 30,
In August, Nickel West cut a deal with ever, as the head grade at Mt Keith de- Nickel West reported a 1% increase in
another nickel survivor – Mincor Re- creased to the grades we see today of nickel production to 22,000t.
sources NL – for the latter to process up 0.6%, a key driver for us has been to get
to 600,000 tpa of nickel sulphide ore at more tonnes through that mill.” – Mark Andrews
the concentrator in Kambalda. To push the Mt Keith concentrator
“We will be the principal, if not the only, back to its heyday standing, Nickel West

Page 32 NOVeMBeR 2019 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT