Nickel Mines Ltd and its major shareholder, Shanghai Decent, plan to focus on the RKEF operational project’s performance in 2020. The company will also actively look at other upcoming opportunities that could add value to the business during the year, it said while.
The company’s, Hengjaya nickel and Ranger nickel under the RKEF project produced around 11,000mt of nickel in Q2 2020, ended December 31, 2019, with close to 10pc increase from the previous quarter. The company reported that this was the first quarter where they held 60pc interest in both operations with a 27.5pc increase in attributable nickel units.
Nickel Mines’ Hengjaya operations produced 5,577.9mt of nickel in Q2 2020. The average NPI grade during the quarter was reported as 13.6pc at 40,910.7mt at an average cash cost of $7,778/mt. The attributed nickel metal production during the quarter increased by 3.7pc at 3,346.7mt from Q1 2020.
The Ranger Nickel operations produced 5,390.4mt of nickel during the quarter with an average NPI grade of 13.8pc at 39,104.7mt and an average cash cost of $7,886/mt. The attributed nickel metal output at the mine was 3,234.2mt, an increase of 67.2pc from the previous quarter. The combined production of nickel metal in both operations in Q2 2020 was 10,968.3mt with an average NPI grade of 13.7pc at 80,015.4mt.
Nickel Mines sold 10,755mt of nickel from both operations for $141.1mn and earned a net profit of $52.8mn. The average monthly cash cost for Hengjaya rose by 3.4pc and increased by 4.6pc for the Ranger operation due to a rise in electricity consumption to try different ore mixes and enhance recoveries.