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nIcKeL conFeRence ReVIeW

All quiet on the IGO-Western front

he elephant in the room may have been
Tallowed to doze quietly in the corner, nei-
ther Western Areas Ltd nor IGO Ltd left Aus-
tralian Nickel Conference delegates in any
doubt about their respective commitment to
growing their nickel base.
The two nickel miners have often shared
the conference stage through the years but
the sight of Dan Lougher and Peter Brad-
ford together this year took on added sig-
nificance given they had only just confirmed
discussions were under way regarding a
possible merger.
The merger is being driven by an indus-
try-wide push to find the longer-life nickel
reserves required to fill robust demand fore-
casts.
“It’s all about growth and that’s where you
want to be today,” Lougher said during his
address.
For Western Areas, the path forward is
clearly defined with the company on the
verge of ore extraction at its massive new
Odysseus underground development in the
Cosmos complex near Leinster, Western iGO managing director Peter Bradford (second left) was keeping close to western Areas
Australia. counterpart Dan Lougher (far left) during the opening session of the Australian Nickel
In October, the company announced it Conference. The two companies are currently in merger discussions. Chris Stone (BHP
had hit first ore in the Odysseus South un- Nickel west) and Oliver Kiddie (Legend Mining) also appeared in the opening session
derground mine and had broken through to
surface following 630m of back reaming on
Stage 1 of the haulage shaft. move because there is a shortage of product Further opportunity exists at the long-ne-
“After 10 months of back reaming we worldwide.” glected Mt Goode orebody which Lougher
broke back through to surface,” Lougher Nickel sulphide concentrate offtake has said had the potential to extend mine life be-
said. “We did a laser survey and having giv- long been sold through short-term contracts yond 20 years.
en them a 200mm tolerance over the 630m, with smelters – whether BHP Nickel West, “There is over 300,000t and while it is at
we believe they are within 100mm so a job Chinese groups Jinchuan and Tsingshan or 0.6% with the right open pit mining methods
very well done by everyone associated. Europeans such as Glencore and Trafigura and right, probably, hydrometallurgical pro-
“The shaft now will start Stage 2 and start – but Western Areas’ recent marketing cam- cessing route this is actually going to come
pilot drilling the bottom 300m.” paigns have suggested fragmentation in the up and we are pushing this quite hard,” he
The company expects the haulage shaft market. said.
to be in full commissioning by April 2023. “The new trend will be moving away from The company was set to launch a drilling
The Cosmos concentrator is expected to traditional smelter short-term [typically three- programme at Mt Goode last month, de-
be up and running before that with Lough- year] contracts to life-of-mine contracts,” signed to provide material for metallurgical
er saying ore currently being trucked from Lougher said, adding the company expect- testwork.
underground to be either stockpiled or toll- ed the trend to create improved commercial “We need more core for mineralogy,
treated. terms and potential downstream benefits. testing, flotation and beneficiation studies,”
“First ore was announced to the market That move will make Odysseus even Lougher said.
this morning,” he said. “We will stockpile that more attractive to customers, especially if Although low grade compared to other
ore and talk to our friends up the road [Nickel the maiden marketing term is only two years. deposits in the company’s stable, Mt Goode
West] about whether they want to toll-treat The project already has a 10-year mine has the kind of tonnages Lougher believes
it, otherwise we will stockpile it ahead of the life but with a feasibility study imminent for are needed to appeal to the next generation
concentrator being recommissioned in No- the adjacent AM6 orebody (2.1mt @ 2.2% of nickel users.
vember next year.” for 47,000t nickel), Lougher is confident of “I know people regard Western Areas as a
The timing of first ore was welcomed, giv- adding life and volume to the operation. high-grade miner, but we have to remember
en that it coincides with the start of offtake Elsewhere, Western Areas is set to restart that we are in a world here where the aver-
discussions surrounding Odysseus output. underground drilling in the main Odysseus age is sub-1% so we mustn’t get too bogged
“We’ve been blown off our feet by the re- orebody where historical holes returned hits down evaluating grades we used to have,”
sponse so far,” Lougher said of the inbound of 5.3m @ 15% nickel and 3.4m @ 22% he said.
inquiries. “Things are looking very good in nickel. “The future of nickel demand will be: ‘can
Asia and Europe and North America coming “We are in there now and will increase the you get nickel units? Can you get nickel
into the market. Everyone now is starting to resource,” Lougher said. sulphide concentrates?’ Not, ‘what is the

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