Norilsk Nickel recently announced it has restarted mining and concentrator operations at Lake Johnston, Western Australia, and expects the operations to reach full capacity by yearend. Ore is being supplied by the Maggie Hays underground mine. Nickel concentrate production is expected to total 25,000 mt by the end of 2011. Concentrate is being delivered to Norilsk processing facilities at Harjavalta, Finland.
Lake Johnston is the first of the Norilsk’s Australian assets to resume operations since they were placed on care and maintenance due to low nickel prices in 2009. Resump-
tion of production at the company’s Cawse, Black Swan, and Waterloo operations, also in Western Australia, is being studied.
Norilsk acquired the Lake Johnston operations as part of its acquisition of LionOre Mining in June 2007.
