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DIGGeRs & DeALeRs

Goro off but nickel,

copper still on for IGO

GO Ltd has walked away from its flirtation with the Goro laterite nickel project
I in New Caledonia, selling its 19% stake in fellow ASX-listed miner and Goro
option holder New Century Resources Ltd.

GO divested its 180 million shares in New has so far failed to achieve its top-10 nickel problem for us was the cost structure and
ICentury in August after deciding against fur- producer potential. the plans in place to get the costs down. The
ther supporting New Century’s ambitious bid “New Century was ahead of the curve on risk/reward balance wasn’t right for IGO at
for the large Pacific nickel project. a deal, having already begun due diligence this time,” Bradford said.
“The investment in New Century was on the ground before COVID hit; we can’t do “Our assets and the message we’ve giv-
a strategy to give us an option to look at that at the moment. We leveraged their work, en about our strategic direction has always
Goro and work out whether it was a fit and did some further due diligence.” been clear; project scale and longevity but
to potentially work with New Century on the That due diligence complete, IGO couldn’t also quality, and we couldn’t see a future
acquisition,” IGO managing director Peter identify a way in which the asset would fit into where Goro was a high-quality asset in our
Bradford told Paydirt. the company portfolio. portfolio. It would always be at the midpoint
At face value it appears unusual for a IGO’s withdrawal was quickly followed by in the cost curve.
company to take such a sizeable stake in a New Century’s own decision not to proceed “Goro would make us relevant in that
fellow miner before quickly dumping its posi- with the transaction. space and if I had a spare couple of million
tion but for Bradford it was always part of the “At the end of the process, I still have a lot dollars I would commit completely to it. Be-
plan and worth the effort to get a look under of confidence in the future of the project. It cause it has the potential to be a company-
the bonnet of Goro, an intriguing project built has scale and mine life and projects like that maker. One of the highest grade laterite pro-
by Vale SA more than a decade ago, which don’t come along every day. The biggest jects in the world.”

Peter Bradford

The Nova nickel operation produced 30,436t nickel,
13,772t copper and 1,142t cobalt in FY20

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