PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Nickel miner Panoramic Resources has delivered the final nickel/copper/cobalt concentrate shipment to offtake partner Jinchuan Group, closing the door on a 20-year cooperation.

A total of 8 185 t of concentrate was loaded on to ship for final delivery to Jinchuan as part of a 2018 concentrate sales agreement, which expires this month. A provision invoice of $13.5-million is expected early next week.

Since the Savannah project’s first shipment in September 2004, approximately 1.5-million wet metric tonnes of concentrate containing more than 100 000 t of nickel, 60 000 t of copper and 5 000 t of cobalt have been delivered to Jinchuan on 179 shipments for total revenue of $1.68-billion.

Panoramic in 2021 entered into a new five-year nickel and copper concentrate offtake agreement with Trafigura, which would span between 2023 and 2028. As part of the offtake arrangement, Trafigura also agreed to provide a $45-million secured financing facility which substantially funded the restart of the Savannah operations.

“Jinchuan has been an important part of Panoramic’s journey over the past 20 years and we are delighted to be able to acknowledge their contribution at this juncture. The initial investment in Panoramic in 2003 laid the foundation for starting the mining operations at Savannah and we are very grateful for Jinchuan being a member of the Panoramic team,” said Panoramic MD and CEO Victor Rajasooriar.

“With the restart of operations in 2021 we welcomed Trafigura into our family. Trafigura was able to provide the necessary funds for the restart and also offered improved payabilities for our highly sought-after, clean nickel/copper/cobalt concentrate. Our shipment next month in March will mark the commencement of sales to Trafigura and we look forward to building a long-lasting mutually beneficial relationship as we did with Jinchuan.”