Western Areas’ Odysseus mine is expected to deliver its first nickel concentrate in the second quarter of the 2023 fiscal year, the company said in a statement.
The project is Western Areas’ third nickel mine in Western Australia and its development work began in January 2019.
The 10-year operating mine plan is expected to produce throughput averaging around 900,000mt per annum, the company said.
The company also said that the project was not affected majorly by COVID-19 impacts and the delivery of the first ore tonnes from underground expected is expected in the 2022 fiscal year (FY22).
The company said that Odysseus is one of the only nickel sulfide projects that will be coming into production during a time when there is a growing demand for nickel rich electric vehicle (EV) batteries, signaling a looming shortage of nickel sulfide products in the market.
Perenti’s underground mining subsidiary Barminco has been awarded a development and production contract of the mine located at Cosmos Nickel Operations in Western Australia. The contract is estimated at $200mn over five years and follows on from Barminco’s earlier rehabilitation work at the mine.
Western Areas acquired the Cosmos Nickel Operations in October 2015.