Yes.
Western area has last month taken a stake in PAN - 19.9%.
Western areas has 3 year deal with BHP for 10ktpa conc. and also with Jinchuan same amont
Jinchuan’s position as China’s largest nickel matte and cathode producer
PAN already exports to jinchuan, so it was a good stake to held.
Mincor starting up their ops and will be delivering under contract deal to Niwest using KNC for processing (Ore tolling)
Niwest production about 65000t Ni pa (Leinster and Mt keith), Also buy form IGO, Western Areas and now Mincor (plus more coy's)
Their Ni sulphate plant is 100ktpa capacity currently, and they will double this in stage 2 (few years time) to 200ktpa.
This is set up (I believe) to to take inputs from Kal smelter mattes only.
On top of that they also have their standard export of briquettes to supply to SS factories in China.
Some other sites currently do direct export concentrate to jinchuan. (Western Areas, Pan, plus more)
I do not think WA state produces 200ktpa NiS (ex laterites (Murrin murrin (Glencore- feed into their own supply chain) and Ravensthorpe(23ktpa) now in C&M)
There is currently a battle between Jinchaun and BHP for supply
If BHP wants to meet stage2 capacity and maintain its Ni metal export volumes.
It basically will need to control majority of concentrate in WA (by owning or its offtake agreements)
A couple of hours browsing and one would be able to gauge WA Ni supply and the demand internally and to Jinchuan (And canada for Glencore).
WA Mining Stats bureau:
After nickel sales volumes increased for the first time in three years in 2017–18, volumes fell again in 2018–19, down 5.6 per cent from 163,374 tonnes in 2017–18 to 154,219 tonnes. This was largely due to fire at Nickel West’s Kalgoorlie smelter in September 2018
Short story, IMO there will lots of TO/Staking/Agreements/Partnerships. And Fraser range is a HUGE part of the supply fix.
