PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Nickel developer Poseidon Nickel has reported a 675 000 t Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant mineral resource estimate for the Silver Swan tailings, in Western Australia.
Grading 0.92% nickel and 683 parts per million cobalt, the tailings are estimated to contain some 6 200 t of nickel and 460 t of cobalt, Poseidon said on Wednesday.
The company told shareholders that the maiden resource supported the company’s concept to co-process the Silver Swan tailings with the Black Swan openpit ore, to improve the product marketability.
Detailed testwork is now under way to optimise the Silver Swan tailings blend ratio and to test the optimal blend ratio with appropriate proportions of the Silver Swan and Golden Swan massive sulphides, with the results expected to support a bankable feasibility study on the restart of the Black Swan concentrator at a 1.1-million production rate.
Poseidon is targeting a final investment decision on the restart of the Black Swan operation by May next year.