BHP has agreed to acquire the Honeymoon Well Nickel Project comprising the Honeymoon Well development project and a 50% interest in the Albion Downs North and Jericho exploration joint ventures from MPI Nickel Pty Ltd, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel Australian Holdings BV. BHP Nickel West is currently a 50% shareholder in the Albion Downs North and Jericho joint ventures.
The combined tenement package is located in the northern Goldfields region of Western Australia, approximately 50 kilometers (km) from BHP’s Mount Keith mine and 100 km from its Leinster concentrator. The package includes the Wedgetail deposit, which contains a high-grade nickel sulphide resource and a high-quality disseminated sulphide resource in the style of the Mount Keith and Yakabindie ore bodies.
“This is an exciting opportunity to enhance our world-class nickel resource base in Western Australia,” BHP Nickel West Asset President Eddy Haegel said. “Proximity to our existing facilities makes us the natural owners of these deposits, and provides potential options to bring the undeveloped resources to market.”
Haegel said this purchase is consistent with its strategy to invest in future-facing commodities and allows them to explore and develop these prospective nickel sulphide tenements.
Nickel West is a fully integrated mine-to-market nickel business. All nickel operations (open-cut and underground mines, concentrators, a smelter and refinery) are located in Western Australia, with the majority of production sold as high-quality nickel metal to overseas markets.
