Kambalda nickel miner Mincor Resources is set to pour over
$20 million into capital development and exploration initiatives
at its core Kambalda nickel business in the 2014 financial
year, thanks to its unrelenting commitment to cost control and
a disciplined approach. While cost cutting and belt tightening
have become the new mantra of the mining industry in
recent months, for Mincor this has been the “new normal” for
some time now.
The nickel price has been in the doldrums ever since falling
from its post-GFC high of around US$13 per pound (lb) in early
2010 –
touching lows of US$6/lb this year and putting the
nickel mining industry under significant pressure.
“
We are pretty battle-hardened because we have been in
the trenches now for some time,” Mincor’s Managing Director
David Moore told
Minesite
.
“
We had already reduced our cash operating costs at
Kambalda by some 27% in FY2012 as a result of a major
restructuring of our operations, and we have just continued
that process over the past 12 months, achieving another
7%
cost savings.
“
It has been very tough but I think we have done a really
good job of moulding our operations to fit the environment, and
we are now about as lean as you can be. The flip side of that is
that we are hugely leveraged to a recovery in prices, which we
may have started to see recently,” Mr Moore said.
David Moore
Managing Director
Mincor Resources NL
Poised for the
nickel worm to turn
Loading ore at Coronet