Managing Director Ian Mulholland commented, “These new RC...

Managing Director Ian Mulholland commented, “These new RC results back up the results we released from Musket a few days ago. It looks like we have identified a near-surface, thicker high grade zone which is consistently running above 8% Ni.” “The grades being recorded in this zone at Musket are similar to those intersected at Cosmos during the early exploration stage of that deposit, and those grades made the mine"

XStrata is winding Cosmos down that might be a positive or a negative DYOR.

From Internet: http://www.miningoilgas.com.au/

Mine: Cosmos
Commodity: Nickel
Ownership: Xstrata Plc, 100 per cent

Operations
Exploration company Jubilee discovered the Cosmos orebody in 1997. Open pit operations by Xstrata Nickel Australasia, a high-grade nickel sulphide producer, at its Cosmos nickel mine began in 1999. The mine, based in Perth, WA achieved first production of nickel concentrate in April 2000.

To date, five high-grade massive nickel sulphide deposits have been discovered within the vicinity of Cosmos including the Cosmos, Cosmos Deeps, Alec Mairs Complex, Prospero and Tapinos deposits.

Processing of ore at Cosmos is carried out using a conventional nickel sulphide flotation plant to upgrade the ore to around 20 per cent nickel in the final concentrate product.

The Cosmos mine produces about 12,000 tonnes per annum of contained nickel in concentrate.

Immediately north of Cosmos, significant strike lengths of the basal ultramafic contact have displayed excellent nickel-Cu-PGE geochemistry, which has remained largely untested.

Annual Report 2009: Total ore treated at Cosmos increased by 54 per cent to 347,665t mainly as a result of increased mining at the Prospero deposit. Nickel grade increased to 3.71 per cent in 2009 from 3.60 per cent in 2008. A low-cost expansion of the Cosmos mill was completed in 2009 to increase capacity to 13,500t of nickel in concentrate per annum and to lower unit costs.