Sirius agrees supply deal with BHP’s Nickel West
BHP Billiton's Nickel West business unit (pictured here) will buy nickel concentrate from Sirius' new Nova mine, in Western Australia.
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Sirius Resources has signed a three-year deal with BHP Billiton to sell about half of its planned nickel sulphide concentrate production from the Nova mine, in Western Australia, to the major’s Nickel West operation.
The mine, which was currently under development, would produce about 26 000 t/y of nickel, in addition to copper and cobalt, and would operate for ten years. Sirius reported on Monday that concentrate production was likely to start in late 2016.
The company would truck concentrate by road from the Nova mine site to Nickel West’s processing facilities at Kambalda.
BHP Billiton placed its struggling Nickel West operations under review last year after missing out to rival Jinchuan Group of China on a nickel supply contract with Western Areas. The company also tried to sell its Nickel West divisions, comprising the Mt Keith, Cliffs and Leinster mines, as well as the Kalgoorlie smelter, Kambalda concentrator and the Kwinana refinery, but in November 2014 shelved its plans after failing to secure an acceptable offer.
The contract with BHP Billiton is consistent with Sirius’ previously stated aim of splitting its planned nickel concentrate production between two customers. The junior reported that negotiations with another party were ongoing and could be concluded by the middle of 2015.
Sirius did not elaborate on the commercial terms of the offtake agreement with BHP Billiton, but stated in a statement that the terms reflected the anticipated “exceptionally high-quality of the Nova nickel concentrate”.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation