PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Base metals miner Panoramic Resources on Tuesday said that first nickel ore from the Savannah North operation, in Western Australia, is expected by November this year, just 16 months after a decision to re-open the mine was taken.
MD Peter Harold told delegates at the Paydirt Nickel conference, in Perth, that first ore would come from development drives being constructed to access the Savannah North orebody which is now only 70 m from the Savannah orebody.
“The future of this mine is all about Savannah North,” Harold said.
“We had mined Savannah for ten years and didn’t even know the Savannah North orebody was there, until we took a punt and drilled a blind hole to the west. It is a big orebody, about 175 000 t of nickel starting about 800 m below surface.
“We don’t even know yet how big it is but we estimate around two kilometres in strike – and we have only drilled out about a third of the potential strike.”
At full production Savannah North will produce around 950 000 t/y of ore, delivering 90 200 t of nickel in concentrate, 50 700 t of copper in concentrate and 6 700 t of cobalt in concentrate over the mine life, or 10 800 t/y of nickel in concentrate, 6 100 t/y of copper in concentrate and 800 t/y of cobalt in concentrate.
Harold said that Panoramic’s new mining push also comes as the company has successfully halved its total senior and mezzanine debt obligations to Macquarie Bank, with senior debt now sitting at only A$20-million.
“Debt can be difficult during ramp-up so it’s critical we get into Savannah North and its cash flow potential, as quickly as we can.”