Toronto-headquartered gold junior Karora Resources is making every effort to capitalise on the strong nickel price environment and is moving “as quickly as possible” to bring new nickel areas into production, CEO Paul Andre Huet said on Monday.

He said Karora, which focuses on precious metals in Western Australia, was excited about the prospects to increase its nickel production, with output of 450 t to 550 t forecast for this year and increases expected from early next year.

Currently, its nickel production comes from the Beta Hunt mine, but it is limited to remnant nickel mineral resources south of the Alpha Island Fault, which is the source of planned production this year.

Karora is planning to develop new nickel areas, such as the 30C and 50C discoveries at Beta Hunt. A resource update for these areas is planned for mid-year, Huet noted.

“With our recent nickel exploration success, we look forward to nickel production increases beginning in 2023 that I expect will be a real differentiator for Karora going forward. With the current strong nickel price environment, we expect to see increased by-product credits to lower our gold production costs,” he said.

Meanwhile, Karora reported its fourth-quarter and full-year results on Monday, announcing record gold output of 112 814 oz for the year, achieving the upper end of its 2021 guidance of 105 000 oz to 115 000 oz.

All-in sustaining costs were $1 102/oz for 2021, achieving the lower-end of its guidance range.

Karora’s net earnings for the year came to $27.5-million, or $0.18 a share, down from $88.1-million for 2020. Net earnings for the fourth quarter were $6.1-million, or $0.04 a share, compared with $42.9-million, or $0.3 a share, in the corresponding quarter.

Adjusted earnings for the year were $48.6-million, down $23.5-million compared with 2020.

Karora is executing its growth plan to double expected yearly gold production to about 200 000 oz by 2024 and reduce costs at its Beta Hunt and Higginsville Gold Operations. The Higginsville treatment facility is a low-cost 1.6-million-tonne-a-year processing plant, expanding to a planned 2.5-million tonnes a year by 2024, which is fed at capacity from Karora's underground Beta Hunt mine and Higginsville mines.