PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Western Areas has completed the A$24.5-million acquisition of the Cosmos nickel complex from diversified miner Glencore's Xstrata Nickel Australasia Operations subsidiary.

The deal was first announced in June, with the complex expected to provide Western Areas with substantial additional exploration upside and a potential second mining operation to complement its existing Forrestania nickel operation.

“The completion of this acquisition meets one of our strategic objectives of acquiring a brownfields growth project, in addition to growth opportunities identified at Forrestania,” said Western Areas MD Dan Lougher.

“We firmly believe that the Cosmos nickel complex provides the company with significant upside from both an exploration front and a very attractive potential new mining operation.”

The completion of the transaction followed the satisfaction of the conditions precedent and Western Areas had paid its first instalment of A$11.5-million in cash.

Future payments were due on July 1, 2016 and April 1, 2017, of A$7-million and A$6-million respectively.

Western Areas would now commence the formal process of registering the transfer of the associated mining and exploration tenements with the Department of Mines and Petroleum.

A 24-month exploration programme was also ready to start at Cosmos to define exploration opportunities in the area.

“The Cosmos nickel complex area has significant infrastructure in place, was underexplored by the previous owner and hosts one of the world’s premier high grade nickel belts. The Odysseus deposit holds some high-grade massive sulphide intersections of up to 12% nickel which we will be looking to expand upon in the future,” Lougher said.

“We are working very closely with our geophysical partner on the surface geophysics programme, while our in-house mining and project team looks to advance Odysseus as a potential new underground mine in a staged and disciplined manner using our low cost operating model.”

The company has also completed a review of the acquired nickel resources in accordance with Joint Ore Reserves Committee compliance standards, confirming a total of 567 297 t of nickel to the Cosmos total mineral resources.