PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Nickel miner Western Areas has started the development of twin declines at its Odysseus mine, at the Cosmos operation in Western Australia, awarding contractor Barminco a A$200-million contract.

The development and production contract at the Odysseus mine will run over a five-year period, and followed on from earlier rehabilitation work that the contractor completed at the mine.

“We are excited to continue our relationship with the Western Areas team, which began in 2005 at Forrestania, and has now grown to include the Cosmos nickel operation,” said Barmico CEO Paul Muller.

“Odysseus is a significant project to bring on-stream, and the five-year term demonstrates the trust and confidence Western Areas has in Barminco to continuously improve and deliver for them.”

Western Areas on Tuesday told shareholders that the de-watering and rehabilitation of the main access decline had been completed, and that work had started on the main decline and return airway full-face development.

“We have reached a critical milestone with the firing of the full-face development of the Odysseus decline, which is now heading across to the orebody. A significant amount of preparation and support work has been delivered across the site to reach this milestone,” said Western Areas MD Dan Lougher.

“We now have our eye on the deliver of the first ore tonnes mined from underground in the first quarter of 2022,” he added.

The refurbishment of the Cosmons concentrator is expected to start in the third quarter of 2022, and first nickel concentrate is targeted for the second quarter of 2023.

A previously completed definitive feasibility study estimated that the Cosmos Odysseus project would produce on average 13 000 t/y of nickel-in-concentrate over an initial ten-year mine life, based on an ore reserve of 8.1-million tonnes, grading 2% nickel for 164 000 t of nickel.