PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Nickel miner Panoramic Resources has inked a contract with ASX-listed Pacific Energy to restart an existing 12 MW diesel power station at the Savannah nickel/copper/cobalt mine, in Western Australia.
The power station will be restarted from November 1, and will be immediately upgraded and expanded with an additional 2 MW of power generation capacity.
Panoramic recently reported that first concentrate from the restarted Savannah project is expected early in the first quarter of next year.
MD Peter Harold said that ore during the first 12 months of production at Savannah would be sourced from the Savannah orebody, before moving to the Savannah North orebody.
Production from the Savannah orebody is expected before Christmas this year, and first concentrate production slated for early 2019, while full production from the Savannah North orebody is expected by the end of 2019.
Panoramic is spending some A$36-million to restart operations at Savannah, which was placed on care and maintenance in May 2016 as nickel prices plummeted.
A 2017 updated feasibility study estimated that the project would deliver an average of 10 800 t of nickel, 6 100 t of copper and 800 t of cobalt annually over its 8.3-year mine life, generating revenues of some A$1.4-billion.
The restarted project is estimated to have a pre-tax net present value of A$210-million and an internal rate of return of 100%.