MINING able to get the best contractor and the best contractor team to do the development work the pace of the development work has been better than planned with over five kilometres of development completed as at the end of May 2016 , he says . “ Our feasibility study projected progress rates of 50 metres a week on a single heading underground and we have been achieving 70-90 metres per week . The rock conditions are good so we have not needed to immediately install the mass of ground support originally anticipated . We have been very fortunate in being able get what we believe are the best in class contractors in Western Australia .” Underground development is the province of Barminco while GR Engineering Services has been building the processing plant and associated infrastructure under a lump sum EPC contract .
The ore will be processed in a plant with 1.5 million tonnes per annum ( mtpa ) capacity , comprising an open circuit SAG mill and a ball mill before separation into nickel and copper concentrates . All the copper concentrate and half the nickel concentrate will be shipped out through the port of Esperance , 380 roadkilometres to the south , the remainder of the nickel concentrate will be delivered to BHP Billiton ’ s
Kamblada site 294 roadkilometres to the north . The site is remote , located on the Eyre highway 150 kilometres east from the small settlement of Norseman . “ Given the remoteness of the site , we invested in robust infrastructure ,” says Bradford . “ We built a 35 kilometre sealed road to the Eyre Highway and a two kilometre sealed airstrip to make sure we can reliably bring our employees in and
www . igo . com . au 67