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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Metals developer Sirius Resources on Wednesday announced that it had signed an offtake agreement with commodities trading group Trafigura over the planned copper sulphide concentrate at the Nova nickel mine, in Western Australia.
The Nova nickel mine was expected to deliver about 26 000 t/y of nickel, 11 500 t/y of copper and 850 t/y of cobalt over a ten-year mine life with concentrate production expected to start in late 2016.
The offtake agreement would run for a period of three years, from the start of production.
“We are pleased to have secured an offtake agreement with Trafigura for our planned copper production for the first three years of Nova’s initial ten-year mine life, and expect to have a productive and mutually beneficial relationship with Trafigura during this period,” said Sirius MD Mark Bennett.
Sirius intended to export the concentrate produced from the Nova mine through the Port of Esperance subject to receiving community endorsement and government approval to use state-of-the-art rotating containers.
The Port of Geraldton, which already used this loading method, was also being weighed as an option for exports.
Sirius told shareholders on Wednesday that the company was at an advanced stage of negotiations with other parties for the remaining half of the expected nickel concentrate production for the first year of production, adding that these contracts would likely be finalised by mid-2015.