Page 88 - pd289-Dec20-mag-web_Neat

DIGGeRs & DeALeRs ReVIeW

Flying Fox falling

but Odysseus soaring

he importance of Western Areas Ltd’s new ted Quoll. The September quarter mine plan The company’s newest project is its scats
T Odysseus nickel development was brought had anticipated greater ore development work heap leach operation which is set to be com-
into sharp relief following an underwhelming for Spotted Quoll, but a pegmatite intrusive unit missioned by the end of the year.
September quarterly performance by the com- was also intercepted in scheduled mining ar- The project will take stockpiled mill scats
pany. eas. (estimated to be 285,000t @ 1.5% nickel) and
The West Australian nickel miner is cur- “A very large amount of ore from Spotted process it via the company’s patented BioHeap
rently building Odysseus – part of the Cosmos Quoll was out of mine development with some bacteria leaching flowsheet. The pregnant liq-
nickel complex near Leinster in WA – ready for intrusive geological features which diluted the uor solution will be collected and pumped into
14,500 tpa nickel-in-concentrate production ore further,” Lougher explained. “When you Forrestania’s mill recovery enhance project
from 2023. Its arrival will provide a much-need- are mining ore drives it is generally more dilu- (MREP) plant which will produce a high-grade
ed production boost as the company concentrate not currently included in
adjusts to the maturity of its flagship 15- offtake contracts.
year old Forrestania nickel operations. The company also has several new
Western Areas posted mined produc- orebodies further up the development
tion of 4,147t nickel and concentrate pro- pipeline.
duction of 3,756t nickel-in-concentrate “Forrestania as a cash generator has
from Forrestania for the September a good few years ahead of it,” Lougher
quarter, down from 5,841t and 5,114t said. “We have the engineers working
respectively in the June quarter. Cash hard on the New Morning project, which
costs also headed in the wrong direction, will also go to backfilling production
up to $4.46/lb in September from $3.17/ when Flying Fox ends. We also have
lb in June. Diggers South, a much larger project
The production slip led the company which is still a few years down the line.”
to downgrade its FY2021 guidance from The arrival of Odysseus will further
19-21,000t to 17-19,000t with costs re- bolster Western Areas production pro-
vised from $3.25-3.75/lb to $3.50-4.00/ file with first ore set to be mined in Au-
lb. gust 2021.
The shortfall came after seismicity is- “Things are progressing extremely
sues in the company’s Flying Fox under- well,” Lougher said of the project’s con-
ground mine as well as increased devel- struction. “We are pouring the founda-
opment work in the Spotted Quoll mine. tions for the winder house and RUC are
Speaking to Paydirt TV after the two-thirds of the way down with a pilot
quarterly results were announced, hole for the main shaft excavation. Bar-
Western Areas managing director Dan minco is pulling up to four cuts per day
Lougher admitted it had been a tough on the main decline.”
quarter at Forrestania. Western Areas has chosen to oper-
“Down at the bottom of Flying Fox we ate via shaft hoisting at Odysseus and
did suffer a seismic event,” Lougher said. has secured a second-hand system
“We do have seismicity and we do cater Dan Lougher from a South African platinum opera-
for that in how we mine and what ground tion.
support we use.” tive. Some 40% of ore won in the September “We have information from Richards Bay
He said variability would likely continue at quarter from Spotted Quoll was from ore driv- that all the shaft hoisting and winder house are
Flying Fox as the mine continued to head into ing, so you see the affect of dilution is greater at port and we should have that arriving in WA
lower grade areas. than if you had a much larger stoping produc- in December,” Lougher said.
“Because of the age of Flying Fox and its tion front.” While construction has begun, Odysseus
maturity, we don’t have a lot of optionality in While the problems at Flying Fox had led to continues to grow with Western Areas recently
terms of being able to jump into extra areas. the production downgrade, Western Areas is bringing 47,100t nickel from the AM6 deposit
In the past that is what we used to do [move less reliant on the mine than it once was. Spot- into the reserve.
to other production areas] and go in and re- ted Quoll is now the dominant producer at For- “We are now running optimisation studies
support that area. restania, providing almost two-thirds of nickel on how we will bring AM6 into the Odysseus
“We don’t lose this area and we don’t lose tonnes mined. The company is also preparing schedule,” Lougher said. “There are lots of
the nickel tonnes; they basically get postponed to start several new projects which will add va- moving parts; we are optimising whether we
into later in FY21. That can take one or two riety to Forrestania’s production profile. increase the mill capacity from 900,000 tpa,
months of work and is a cost on top of normal “Flying Fox is actually the lowest of the pro- optimising the shaft and looking at the power
operating costs.” duction fronts,” Lougher said. “There is still lots requirements.”
The seismicity issues in Flying Fox were of nickel at Forrestania and we have got great
compounded by the mine scheduling at Spot- infrastructure in place.” – Dominic Piper

Page 88 DeCeMBeR 2020 - JaNUaRY 2021 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT