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grade?’. The world will require all nickel prod-
ucts, if you’ve got them.”
Having access to longer life nickel tonnes
is driving IGO’s bid to marry up with Western
Areas.
While the company is in “harvest mode”
on its Nova nickel-copper-cobalt mine in
WA, Bradford said the company’s desire to
make the leap to nickel sulphate production
required deeper reserves than the current western Areas is on the verge of ore extraction from its new Odysseus South
four years Nova boasts. underground mine
“We are already a downstream proces-
sor through the Tianqi JV [where it is mining We developed the IGO process, it delivers However, the recent acquisition of the Sil-
spodumene at Greenbushes and produc- high metal extractions, has lower cost, lower ver Knight nickel deposit from Creasy Group
ing a lithium hydroxide product at Kwinana] emissions and lower waste,” Bradford said. and the opening of discussions with Western
and we have an aspiration to take our nickel “We continue our journey to identify more Areas points to the company’s growing need
downstream,” he said. longer-date nickel tonnes to realise our am- for more tonnes.
IGO has already developed a unique bition of going downstream and becoming “The year ahead is about… maintaining
processing pathway to produce a nickel sul- vertically integrated in the nickel space.” our commitment to exploration and discov-
phate product but given the capital intensity To date, IGO has relied on exploration to ery to unlock value while also continuing a
of such projects, it requires the production fulfill its ambitions. It has a $65 million explo- parallel workstream to identify disciplined,
profile to reach critical mass. ration budget for FY2022, of which $33 mil- accretive M&A opportunities,” Bradford said.
“We started this journey by looking at lion is committed to Nova and the regional – Dominic Piper
that emerging demand for nickel sulphate. Fraser Range ground.

Metal Hawk swoops

on Commodore

merging explorer Metal Hawk Ltd has the company reported intersecting “signifi- been explored, ever, really,” Belbin said.
Ebolstered its bank balance to $5.5 mil- cant” massive sulphide mineralisation from “The interpreted ultramafic runs up
lion after confirming Australia’s latest nickel maiden drilling at Commodore, about 20km through our ground for about 10km…
sulphide discovery. east of Kalgoorlie and only 5km north of the there’s no drilling that has effectively tested
Metal Hawk raised $2.4 million via a historic Blair nickel mine. this unit, so it effectively gives us a fertile
strongly supported placement last month Subsequent assay results for the lower chunk of ultramafic to explore.
to accelerate exploration efforts at its Bere- section of the discovery hole returned 1m “It’s high tenor nickel sulphide, what more
haven nickel project where grades of up to @ 5.89% nickel from 144m. A second drill could you ask for?”
5.89% nickel were recently recorded at the hole of 22m @ 0.27% nickel, 170 ppm cop- Established nickel producer– and JV
Commodore prospect. per, 10 ppb platinum and 20 ppb palladium partner on three other Metal Hawk pro-
Shares in Metal Hawk soared more than from 92m also intersected a zone of ex- jects – Western Areas Ltd participated
400% to 96.5c in early September after tremely weathered and gossanous ultra- in last month’s placement to maintain its
mafic rock. 6.6% holding in the company. Berehaven is
Diamond drilling is now 100% owned by Metal Hawk.
under way, with deeper drill- Belbin said his team had been pleasant-
ing to follow. Staged RC ly surprised by the market reaction to the
drilling will also begin shortly discovery at Commodore, especially with
to test the zone of massive Metal Hawk only making its ASX debut last
sulphides immediately along November.
strike from the discovery “We believe we’re on to a very good thing
hole. here,” he said. “There’s a lot of nickel com-
Speaking to Paydirt on panies out there, some with much less ex-
the sidelines of the Austral- citing projects than what we have, but we’re
ian Nickel Conference, Metal off to a pretty good start.
Hawk managing director Will “We don’t have a big team to spread our
Belbin said his company wings too far at this point in time, but while
could not have asked for a we’ve got all this excitement happening at
better start to drilling at Be- Commodore we’re really going to knuckle
rehaven. down over these next few months.”
“We hit some high-grade, Metal Hawk is currently awaiting results
massive nickel sulphide, un- from recent drilling programmes at its Emu
Metal Hawk managing director will Belbin talks shop with der cover, 5km north of the Lake and Kanowna East gold-nickel pro-
western Areas boss Dan Lougher at the company’s booth Blair nickel mine, on a piece jects.
during the Australian Nickel Conference. western Areas is of stratigraphy that hasn’t
a major shareholder in the emerging nickel-gold explorer – Michael Washbourne

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT NOVeMBeR 2021 Page 29