Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Going against the grain, ASX-listed nickel miner Mincor Resources this week announced that it would increase its 2015 exploration budget by about 40%.
Despite the weaker commodity price environment, Mincor said it would push its exploration spend to A$14-million in 2015, owing to the high level of exploration success achieved at exploration assets in Western Australia.
“Since making the decision to ramp up its overall level of exploration expenditure in January 2014, the company has enjoyed great success on a number of fronts, and now sees numerous high-quality opportunities emerging,” Mincor noted.
The new opportunities included new discoveries at the Cassini and Voyce deposits, which had the potential to host two new operations, as well as high-grade intersections at the B01 orezone at the Burnett deposit, and the potential at the Durkin North mineral resource.
Mincor had also had continued exploration success at both its Miitel and Mariners deposits.
Meanwhile, Mincor also reported a strong quarterly production performance from its operating mines, with the miner delivering 2 469 t of nickel-in ore during the quarter.
This was compared with the 2 515 t of nickel-in-ore delivered in the September quarter.
Mincore pointed out that a number of power outages occurred during the quarter under review, which affected both its Mariners and Miitel mines; however, the company was able to contain the impacts of this power outages.
The Mariners miner delivered 38 345 t of ore during the quarter under review, containing 1 363 t of nickel in ore, while the Miitel mine delivered 47 020 t of ore, containing 1 106 to of nickel in ore.