PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Nickel miner Western Areas has beaten its production and cash cost forecast for the financial year to June 30, on the back of another solid quarter from its Western Australian operations.

Mill throughput for the quarter ended June reached a record 157 913 t, resulting in the production of 6 676 t of nickel in concentrate. The company had produced 6 702 t of nickel in concentrate during the March quarter.

The Flying Fox mine produced 3 076 t of nickel for the June quarter, down from the 3 330 t delivered in the previous quarter, while the Spotted Quoll mine produced 3 489 t of nickel, compared with the 3 372 t delivered in the previous quarter.

For the full year, Western Areas produced 25 801 t of nickel in concentrate, which exceeded the guidance of 25 500 t. The Flying Fox mine contributed 12 904 t of nickel and Spotted Quoll 13 620 t in the full year.

Meanwhile, full-year mill throughput reached a record 609 727 t at the Cosmic Boy concentrator, which exceeded its design capacity by more than 10%. 

Western Areas said the level of plant availability and the resulting throughput could be directly attributed to disciplined adherence to maintenance plans established since the commissioning of the plant.

At the end of the June quarter, some 69 031 t of ore, at an average grade of 4.5% nickel containing some 3 115 t of nickel, were stockpiled at both the mine pads and concentrator run-of-mine pad. This represented one-half month’s mill feed, which enabled the selection of an optimal mill feed blend.

Western Areas on Tuesday also reported that unit cash costs for production reached A$2.19/lb for the quarter ended June – the lowest quarterly costs recorded in 2015.

This facilitated a full-year unit cash cost of A$2.31/lb, which was better than the guidance of A$2.40/lb to A$2.50/lb.

Earlier this week, Western Areas announced that it would spend A$22-million on the Forrestania mill enhancement project, which would process one of the tailings streams from one of the flotation plants, which contains valuable amounts of nickel that could not be recovered into concentrate by traditional flotation methods.

It was expected that some 1 200 t/y of nickel in concentrate would be recovered.