INDEPENDENCE GROUP ( IGO )
“ The lifeblood of any mining company is its pipeline ”
– Peter Bradford , MD & CEO nickel since being acquired by IGO and the Company has been able to consistently replace production with new reserves . This is an underground mine , the ore being removed by trucks , stockpiled and then moved to BHP ’ s nearby concentrator for processing .
More recently , in 2011 , IGO purchased the Jaguar copper and zinc mine 300 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie and close to the small town of Leonora . Today this operation , together with Long , gives IGO the other half of its revenues . Both mines continue to generate positive free cash flow margins , despite current low copper and nickel pricing . Both these assets are wholly owned and operated by IGO . Jaguar is mined using a fleet of R1700 Caterpillar Load Haul Dump ( LHD ) trucks , 60 tonne Caterpillar trucks and other equipment . Ore is processed at the nearby Jaguar concentrator which produces both zinc and copper concentrates , the latter having silver and gold in it too . The concentrates are trucked to the port of Geraldton where they are shipped to IGO ’ s customers .
This year the business will be transformed by the advent of the Nova nickel mine . Instead of being split evenly between Long and Jaguar , and Tropicana respectively , more than 50 percent of future combined revenues will come from Nova . This is not to deny the continuing significance of Jaguar and Long :
44 August 2016