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Australia
Flying Fox Mine (Forrestania Operation)

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 Location:
360 km E from Perth, Western Australia, Australia

  Regional Office:
Level 2, 2 Kings Park Road
PO BOX 1891
West Perth
Western Australia, Australia
6005
Phone  ...  Subscription required
Fax+61-8-9486-7866
EmailEmail
WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeUnderground
Commodities
  • Nickel
Mining Method
  • Longhole open stoping
  • Avoca
  • Cemented backfill
  • Paste backfill
Processing
  • Bacterial leaching
  • Flotation
Mine Life2 years (as of Jan 1, 2021)
Flying Fox is Western Areas first producing underground mine and remains one of the highest grade nickel mines in the world.


Owners

Source: p. 8,91
CompanyInterestOwnership
Western Areas Ltd. 100 % Indirect
The Company owns a 100% interest in the Forrestania Nickel Operation.

Deposit Type

  • VMS


Summary:

The Flying Fox deposit is located about 350 km east-southeast of Perth in the Forrestania greenstone belt, which is the southern extension of the Southern Cross greenstone belt, Southern Cross Domain, Youanmi Terrane in the Archean Yilgarn craton of Western Australia. The Forrestania belt trends approximately north–south over a length of 250 km, ranges in width from 5 to 30 km, and is flanked to the east by the Eastern Goldfield Superterrane and to the west by the South West Terrane. Six ultramafic belts are identified in the Forrestania greenstone belt: the Western, Mid-Western, Takashi, Central Fold, Mid-Eastern, and Eastern, with the Flying Fox deposit located in the Western ultramafic belt.

The stratigraphy of the Forrestania greenstone belt consists of: 1) a lower succession of predominantly tholeiite and komatiite metavolcanic sequences intercalated with banded ironformation (BIF), sulfidic chert layers, and localized felsic metasedimentary units; and 2) an uppermost succession of fine-grained clastic sedimentary rocks (pelitic to psammitic schists) with minor BIF horizons, located in the centre of the belt. The stratigraphy has been intruded by granitic rocks which have exploited pre-existing faults, and by east–west trending dolerite dikes.


Mining Methods

  • Longhole open stoping
  • Avoca
  • Cemented backfill
  • Paste backfill


Summary:

Flying Fox is Western Areas first producing underground mine and remains one of the highest grade nickel mines in the world. Production commenced in 2006, and the underground mine now operates at depths of over 1km underground.

The Flying Fox orebody extends from 250m to 1.2km below the surface and includes discrete independent orebodies with possible extensions at depth. The primary stoping method used is ‘top- down’ long-hole stoping using paste-fill to attempt 100% recovery of the high-grade orebody. In the narrower sections of the orebody both modified Avoca with unconsolidated and cemented rock-fill are used.


Crushing and Grinding


Processing

  • Bacterial leaching
  • Flotation

Source: Subscription required

Summary:

The CBC treats the raw nickel and produces a consistent nickel concentrate product grading approximately 14% nickel. The concentrate produced from the Forrestania project is characterised by low impurities such as magnesium which makes it more desirable to smelters.

The concentrator consists of a three-stage crushing circuit, followed by a single closed-circuit ball mill and a system of flotation tanks and thickening/filtration system.

The recovery rates for Cosmic Boy currently average between 85% and 90%. The recovery rates refer to the percentage amount of nickel recovered from the raw ore during processing.

At CBC a Mill Recovery Enhancement Project (MREP) has recently been commissioned. The MREP incorporates the use of the Company’s BioHeap™ technology to recover nickel from the tailings waste stream. The nickel recovered is then converted into a high-grade nickel sulphide product which can either be mixed with the CBC floatation concentrate or s ........

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter2020201920182017
Nickel Head Grade, %  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required3.94.4

Production:

CommodityUnits2020201920182017
Nickel t  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required10,05410,486
All production numbers are expressed as metal in ore.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics2020201920182017
Ore tonnes mined  ......  Subscription required231,607 t260,665 t237,119 t
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Reserves at June 30, 2020:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Probable 395,300 t Nickel 3 % 12,020 t
Indicated 918,779 t Nickel 4.5 % 41,536 t
Inferred 259,568 t Nickel 1.4 % 3,771 t
Total Resource 1,178,347 t Nickel 3.8 % 45,307 t


Heavy Mobile Equipment:

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 24, 2021
Subscription required - Subscription is required.


Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
Annual Report 2018
Annual Report 2017
Other 2010
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Aerial view:

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