NICKEL miner Minara Resources said the ongoing restructure of its operations over the past six months has led to a significant reduction in production costs.
The company introduced measures to cut costs including cutting discretionary spending, reducing the workforce, slashing capital project work, lowering overheads, initiating a lower-cost mining plan and reducing the operation’s sulphur usage.
“Though we have made substantial progress, because of the prevailing market conditions, we are continuing to explore additional ways to reduce costs and these will be progressively implemented during the quarter,” Minara managing director and chief executive officer Peter Johnston said.
The company added that a decline in the price of sulphur to below $US100 per tonne would also help reduce production costs, as sulphur is a major input for Minara’s laterite nickel processing.
The impact of the falling nickel price had been partially offset by the decreasing Australian dollar, Minara said.
Perth-based Minara said it is looking at putting longer-term funding arrangements in place, by using either debt and/or equity.
Spot nickel rose more than 7% to $US9826 per tonne overnight on the London Metal Exchange.
Shares in Minara jumped 14% or 5c to 40c this morning.
MRE Price at posting:
20.6¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
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