Overview
Stage | Production |
Mine Type | Underground |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
- Longhole open stoping
- Avoca
- Room-and-pillar
- Cemented paste backfill
- Cemented rockfill
- Unconsolidated rockfill
|
Production Start | ... |
Mine Life | 2026 |
The Nova is a high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt deposit. It is one of the lowest cost nickel operations in Australia. The Nova Operation comprises the Nova underground nickel mine and processing operation which produces nickel and copper concentrates. |
Source:
p. 149
Company | Interest | Ownership |
IGO Ltd.
|
100 %
|
Indirect
|
The Nova operation and exploration properties are owned by the IGO Ltd's wholly owned subsidiary IGO Nova Pty Ltd.
Contractors
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Deposit Type
- Magmatic
- Intrusion related
Summary:
The Nova Operation comprises an underground mine consisting of two orebodies, Nova and Bollinger.
Nova-Bollinger is within the 425 by 50km wide, Mesoproterozoic-age Fraser Zone of the Albany-Fraser Orogen. The Fraser Zone is fault bounded by the Biranup Zone to the northeast and the Nornalup Zone to the southeast. The Arid Basin forms the basement to the Fraser Zone and the Snowys Dam Formation of the Arid Basin is the basement package in the Nova-Bollinger area. During the first phase of the Albany-Fraser Orogeny at around 1.30Ga, mafic, ultramafic, and granitic intrusions were emplaced penecontemporaneously with the granulite facies metamorphism of the regional stratigraphy, which was occurring at crustal depths of 28 to 35km below surface. This zone is now characterised by gneissic fabrics, complex refolding and major mylonitic zones.
The rocks within the Nova-Bollinger region are consistent with the regional descriptions of the Snowys Dam formation and include pelitic to psammitic gneisses, a local carbonate unit, along with metamorphosed mafic-ultramafic (MUM) and volcanoclastic rocks. The Nova-Bollinger MUM sill complex that hosts Nova-Bollinger’s Ni-Cu-Co sulphide mineralisation is a doubly plunging synform, where a magnetite-bearing footwall gneiss has been identified as the cause of ‘The Eye’ magnetic feature. The MUM sill complex is a dish-shaped package 2.4 by 1.2km in plan and up to 450m in thickness. The rocks of the complex range in mineral ........
Mining Methods
- Longhole open stoping
- Avoca
- Room-and-pillar
- Cemented paste backfill
- Cemented rockfill
- Unconsolidated rockfill
Summary:
IGO’s mining engineers have prepared Nova’s FY23 ORE using routine industry methods, whereby the FY23 MRE block model was coded with mine reconciled grades and metallurgical recovery before an A$/t NSR mining value was calculated for each model block.
Due to the variable geometries of the Nova-Bollinger mineralisation, IGO uses several different mining methods for ore extraction. As depicted in the thicker portions of Nova-Bollinger bulk, stopes up to 75m high are designed, drilled and blasted, then extracted using remotely controlled loaders. The stopes are then backfilled with paste, which is comprised of non-sulphide process tailings mixed with a binder. The paste-fill is then left to cure to a strength that supports the stope walls so that adjacent secondary stopes can be safely mined. This mining method ensures near full extraction of the ORE, while minimising any ore dilution from potential stope wall and crown over-break effects.
In the Upper Nova area, where the mineralisation is narrower and more steeply dipping, either longhole stoping or a modified Avoca mining method is used for extraction. The Upper Nova stopes are backfilled with waste-rock, or in some areas cemented waste-rock, to provide post-mining geotechnical stability. While these two mining methods have inherent higher mining dilution than the paste backfill method, both methods are more cost and production-rate effective in the areas of narrow and steeply dipping mineralisation. < ........
Source:
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Source:
Summary:
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Reserves at June 30, 2023:
Ore Reserves: Reported is A$147/t NSR cut off for full burden stoping, A$79/t for incremental stoping cost, and A$38/t for development ore, using FY23 p50 metal prices and FX.
Mineral Resources: Reported using a A$58.5/t NSR and FY23 metal prices and FX.
Mineral Resources are reported inclusive of Mineral Reserves.
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Proven
|
4.2 Mt
|
Nickel
|
1.6 %
|
67.7 kt
|
Proven
|
4.2 Mt
|
Copper
|
0.64 %
|
27.2 kt
|
Proven
|
4.2 Mt
|
Cobalt
|
0.057 %
|
2.4 kt
|
Probable
|
0.4 Mt
|
Nickel
|
1.83 %
|
6.8 kt
|
Probable
|
0.4 Mt
|
Copper
|
0.77 %
|
2.8 kt
|
Probable
|
0.4 Mt
|
Cobalt
|
0.063 %
|
0.2 kt
|
Proven & Probable
|
4.6 Mt
|
Nickel
|
1.62 %
|
74.5 kt
|
Proven & Probable
|
4.6 Mt
|
Copper
|
0.65 %
|
30.1 kt
|
Proven & Probable
|
4.6 Mt
|
Cobalt
|
0.058 %
|
2.6 kt
|
Measured
|
5.4 Mt
|
Nickel
|
1.87 %
|
101 kt
|
Measured
|
5.4 Mt
|
Copper
|
0.73 %
|
39.4 kt
|
Measured
|
5.4 Mt
|
Cobalt
|
0.061 %
|
3.3 kt
|
Indicated
|
0.3 Mt
|
Nickel
|
1.34 %
|
4.7 kt
|
Indicated
|
0.3 Mt
|
Copper
|
0.44 %
|
1.5 kt
|
Indicated
|
0.3 Mt
|
Cobalt
|
0.048 %
|
0.2 kt
|
Inferred
|
Mt
|
Nickel
|
1.21 %
|
0.1 kt
|
Inferred
|
Mt
|
Copper
|
0.26 %
|
0.02 kt
|
Inferred
|
Mt
|
Cobalt
|
0.045 %
|
0.003 kt
|
Total Resource
|
5.8 Mt
|
Nickel
|
1.84 %
|
105.8 kt
|
Total Resource
|
5.8 Mt
|
Copper
|
0.71 %
|
41 kt
|
Total Resource
|
5.8 Mt
|
Cobalt
|
0.06 %
|
3.5 kt
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
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