Poseidon Nickel has just announced that their recent Feasibility Study has confirmed the restart of the Silver Swan Underground and the restart of the Black Swan open pit mine processing plant. Black Swan is set to generate revenues of AU $288.6 million after tax.
The Black Swan Project is located approximately 600km east of Perth and 50km northeast of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. According to Poseidon Nickel, the Feasibility Study ‘confirms’ that operations can be brought back into administration with the first production to commence within 12 months of fully funding the project. The engineering study also highlighted the key prestart activities that would be required to restart Silver Swan’s mining and processing pursuits including the required capital and operating costs that would be needed.
The mine is predicted to provide production of circa 8,000 tonnes of nickel per annum in a smeltable grade concentrate. The company has stated that the project’s total capital cost will be AU$56.7 million (including plant and mine refurbishment and development). The project is estimated to have a life of 3.1 years, with a number of ‘promising resource extensions’ to also be developed. The Feasibility Study also stated that a capital investment of $12.9 million would be needed to generate Silver Swan, alongside a requirement of $18.5 million for the plant alone. The process plant was originally built and upgraded in 2007 but was then put into care in February 2009, presumably due to falling nickel prices in the financial crisis.
Local jobs will need to be created to assist with the mine, including jobs for contractors as well. It was also announced that the recruitment of leadership and maintenance roles will be the first of the new jobs to be progressed. Poseidon Nickel has stated that their intention is for the workforce to be residential Kalgoorlie based.
Negotiations for the sale of Silver Swan & Black Swan product and prepayment terms are also underway. The company has further shared that they believe nickel prices are set to ‘progressively improve over the next 12 months’.
More information on this can be found here.