PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Nickel miner Poseidon Nickel has reported a maiden reserve estimate for the Maggie Hays deposit, within the Lake Johnston project, in Western Australia, of 1.9-million tonnes, grading 1.19% nickel for 22 600 t of contained nickel.

The miner reported on Monday that the ore reserve represented an initial 30 months of plant throughput, producing 8 000 t/y of nickel in a smeltable grade.

“Achieving a two-and-a-half-year reserve life even before we have carried out any additional drilling is an important milestone for Lake Johnston,” said Poseidon MD and CEO David Singleton.

He noted that based on the past drilling completed on site and the company’s geological models, Poseidon believed that the production life at Maggie Hays could continue to grow.

“While the facility remains in care and maintenance, the work programme now completed on the site has given us real belief in this project, which we will implement as soon as the nickel market gets to the appropriate point. Market analysis indicates this may be sooner rather than later.”

Poseidon was currently undertaking a bankable feasibility study on the Maggie Hays deposit, based on a combined feed from the Maggie Hays and Black Swan sites, at an average throughput of 1.13-million tonnes of ore a year, through a 1.5-million-tonne-a-year processing plant at Lake Johnston.

Meanwhile, Poseidon also upgraded the estimated probable ore reserve at its Mt Windarra project, which was now estimated at 0.567-million tonnes, grading 1.7% nickel for 9 630 t of contained nickel.

The ore reserve estimate was based on a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of 4.3-million tonnes, grading 1.64% nickel for 71 500 t of contained nickel. The indicated resource, estimated at 922 000 t, was converted into probable ore reserve, subject to the mine design physicals and an economic evaluation.