Western Areas Beats Full-year Guidance in All Areas

Australia-based nickel miner Western Areas Ltd. (ASX:WSA) released its activity report for the period ended June 30, 2015, noting that it beat its full-year guidance in all areas. The company believes its performance demonstrates its “resilience to the current low nickel price environment.”
Highlights for the quarter include:

1. Flying Fox mine production was 62,976t of ore mined at 4.9% for 3,076 nickel tonnes (6.8M lbs).
2. Spotted Quoll mine production was 68,569t of ore at 5.1% for 3,489 nickel tonnes (7.7M lbs).
3. Mill throughput was 157,913t of ore at an average grade of 4.7% nickel with recovery of 89.2%.
4. Pre-consolidated cash at bank (excluding FinnAust) increased by A$3.0m to A$193.7m which includes the interim dividend payment of A$6.7m and the impact of negative quotation period (QP) pricing.
5. Agreement was reached to purchase the Cosmos Nickel Complex from Xstrata Australasia Operations Pty Ltd (Glencore subsidiary) for A$24.5m.
6. The Mill Enhancement Recovery Project has been approved by the Board with recoveries to increase 3% to 5% over the life of mine
7. Flying Fox Resources and Reserves upgraded (see Section 4).
8. New Morning/Daybreak shallow drilling intersected nickel sulphides including 6.7m @ 3.1% nickel (NMD 205) and 17.5m @ 2.8% nickel (NMD207).
9. Planning for the major drilling program at the Western Gawler project in South Australia was completed. Drilling commenced in July.

Click here to read the full Western Areas Ltd. (ASX:WSA) press release.