PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Nickel miner Poseidon has taken full operational control of the Black Swan nickel project, in Western Australia, after completing the purchase agreement with major Norilsk Nickel.

Poseidon initially planned to use the 2.2-million-tonne Black Swan processing plant to treat the ore from its Windarra operation, but following a deal with major BHP Billiton last year, the Windarra ore would now be treated at BHP’s Nickel West division, leaving Black Swan to be developed as a standalone operation.

The Black Swan acquisition included a nickel sulphide concentrator plant, the Black Swan sulphide ore openpit mine, and the Silver Swan underground mine.

A current feasibility study on the Black Swan project was based on a 1.1-million-tonne-a-year operation, based on a resource of 30.7-million tonnes, grading 0.58% nickel for 179 000 t of contained nickel.

“This project, when in production, mined the highest nickel grade ore in the world at Silver Swan, and today includes a very substantial resource,” said Poseidon MD and CEO David Singleton.

“We have already completed and announced the results of the resource upgrade and restart feasibility study for the project in late 2014. While our short-term focus remains on our Lake Johnston and Windarra projects, we will now commence further work intended to lead towards the reopening of the mine,” Singleton added.

The Black Swan operation was scheduled to go into production as soon as the Mt Windarra and Lake Johnston projects were in production.

The project was expected to require a capital investment of some A$12.8-million, and would produce 9 600 t/y of nickel-in-concentrate, over a mine-life of seven years.

Meanwhile, Poseidon noted on Monday that while the transaction for Black Swan had been completed, there remained an unresolved historic mortgage transfer at the project, which was currently in the name of Norilsk, and needed to be transferred to Poseidon.

This transfer would be dealt with as a condition subsequent to the transaction, and would not prevent Poseidon from undertaking any activities at the project area.