PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Nickel major Norilsk is preparing to start its Honeymoon Well project, in Western Australia, following positive studies completed in 2011, director of overseas operations Roman Panov said this week.

He said at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town, that the Honeymoon Well project would have a production capacity of some 40 000 t/y of nickel.

Panov noted that Norilsk was also in the process of gradually recommissioning a number of the company’s operations in Australia, where production was suspended for an indefinite period in 2009, in view of unfavorable economic conditions.

As a result of a 2010 internal audit, the company's management considered it reasonable to restart operations in Australia, said Panov.

The Lake Johnston project, also in Western Australia, was restarted after mine and concentrator restoration was completed in July last year. Efforts thus far have been aimed at reaching the design capacity.

At the end of January, Lake Johnston produced some 2 405 t of nickel in concentrate and targets in terms of the quality of commercial products and nickel recovery were reached.

“The company plans a further development of technology to improve concentrator performance due to stabilisation of production and process flow sheet optimization. Lake Johnston is to produce 8 400 t of nickel in concentrate,” said Panov.

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