PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A definitive feasibility study (DFS) into ASX-listed Poseidon Nickel’s Windarra project, in Western Australia, has indicated that the project could deliver some 9 600 t/y of nickel in concentrate.

Capital cost for the project had been estimated at around A$197-million, which Poseidon said compared favourably to the global capital-intensity costs for the industry.

The project would have an initial ten-year life-of-mine, with the DFS incorporating the development of the existing brownfield Mount Windarra underground mine, the nearby greenfield Cerberus underground mine, a nickel sulphide concentrator plant and a retreatment plant.

The DFS also detailed the development of a gold production facility on site, which could produce an estimated 45 000 oz of gold in the first three years of the operation life from a 4.36-million-ton gold tailings reserve in the north and south tailings dam.

“The DFS confirms a strong future for Poseidon as a low-cost producer of nickel in Australia with a mine life potentially well beyond a decade,” said Poseidon chairperson Andrew Forrest.

The Windarra project was expected to deliver total earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $1.8-billion, and had a net present value of $546-million.

MD David Singleton noted that the company’s objective now was to immediately move to finance completion, construction and production.

“We are in the fortunate position of expecting to have two-thirds of the required capital items secured in signed contracts by the time financing is completed. We see the timing of the project as significant, with Windarra’s development in parallel with widely held expectations of a substantial recovery in nickel price and demand.”

Poseidon has appointed Credit Suisse to assist the company in assessing financing alternatives for the project.

The overall construction time for the first phase of the project had been estimated at 56 weeks for the nickel sulphide concentrator plant, and 48 weeks for the gold plant.