Located in Western Australia, the Savannah Nickel Project has produced its first nickel-copper-cobalt. Panoramic Resources will aim to have its first concentrate shipment in December 2021.
Panoramic’s circa one-million-tonne-per-annum processing plant was commissioned three weeks ahead of schedule. Operational stability was achieved thanks to the tailings processing and crushing, milling and flotation circuits.
Following the completion of requisite preparatory works, Primero’s processing team is now fully mobilised to site. Panoramic aims to commence concentrate haulage from site to Wyndham Port next week.
A local workforce has already been recruited for the task by haulage contractor Cambridge Gulf (CGL). The first concentrate is validation for his company’s diligence at Savannah.
“It’s fantastic to see the careful planning and hard work undertaken over the past 12 months culminate in the commencement of processing ahead of schedule. The leadership group at site and our business partner Primero have been working hard to deliver on the restart of the processing plant and have achieved this safely. We have been pleased with the performance of the plant through the commissioning phase and will now target ramp up to steady state production over the coming months,” said Panoramic managing director and chief executive officer Victor Rajasooriar
Rajasooriar said Savannah’s ramp up comes at just the right time, with prices faring well.
“As underground mining continues at Savannah and ore production steadily builds, the surface ore stockpile, which is currently sitting at over 120,000 tonnes, will provide consistent feed to the processing plant and reduce any risk to throughput rates,” he continued.
“The timing of first concentrate production has also aligned well with prices for nickel, copper and cobalt, which have continued to show strength as the year progresses.”