Independence Group NL (IGO or the Company) (ASX:IGO) provides this update on the progress of the production ramp-up of the Nova nickel – copper – cobalt mine to name plate capacity. Operational ramp-up is proceeding to plan and IGO expects to declare commercial production from the end of June 2017.

Recent milestones include:

• First offshore shipments of copper and nickel concentrates being completed
• FY17 metal production in concentrate expected to be 3,400t nickel and 1,500t copper
• Process plant is transitioning from campaign feed to continuous operations
• Metallurgical recoveries approaching life of mine design as expected
• Underground ore production to reach name plate capacity of 1.5Mtpa in the September 2017 quarter
• Close spaced grade control drilling of the Nova and Bollinger deposits is 70% complete and has led to an improved understanding of both deposits from which an updated JORC Code Mineral Resource estimate is being prepared
•  The Nova Operations management team has been strengthened

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