Nickel delivers for Nova
INDEPENDENCE Group (IGO) has capped off a solid 2019 financial year with metal production exceeding guidance at its Nova operations in WA’s Fraser Range.
According to IGO managing director Peter Bradford, on-going optimisation at Nova had delivered nickel production rates that exceeded the averages determined in the feasibility study for each of the last five quarters.
The company’s nickel production for the financial year totalled 30,708t at the Nova site, outperforming the company’s initial estimate of between 27,000t to 30,000t.
IGO’s copper production at the site also exceeded guidance at 13,693t, above the 2019 financial year guidance of between 11,000t to 12,500t.
Mr Bradford said the positive performance underpinned IGO’s potential downstream processing opportunity to produce battery grade nickel sulphate at Nova.
“Nova is the lowest cost nickel producer in Australia and one of the lowest cost in the world despite by-product credit pricing head winds,” he said.
IGO also reported 132,495oz of gold production at the Tropicana joint venture in the June quarter, taking yearly total at the site to 518,172oz, within its 2019 guidance range of 500,000oz to 550,000oz.
“The better than guidance production performance at Nova and on guidance production from Tropicana for the 2019 financial year reflects the quality of our assets, and more importantly, the consistent high performance by our world class operating team at Nova and the JV team at Tropicana,” Mr Bradford said.
IGO, alongside its joint venture partner AngloGold Ashanti Australia, also commenced the development of the Boston Shaker underground mine, with the firing of the first blast for the portal taking place in May.
The mine has an estimated capital cost of $105m, with expectations to mine about 1.1mt per annum of ore reserves. It is due to produce first gold in the September 2020 quarter.
“IGO enters financial year 2020 positioned to progress its strategy to become a globally relevant supplier of metals critical to energy storage and renewable energy,” Mr Bradford said.