Australian producer Pacific Nickel Mines will load its first shipment of 60,000t of nickel ore to mining firm Glencore next week.
The nickel ore from Pacific Nickel Mines' Kolosori project on Solomon Islands' Isabel island will first be loaded onto four 3,000t barges that will send the ore to Glencore, which has scheduled a transport ship that is likely to arrive on 19 December, Pacific Nickel Mines said on 14 December. The average nickel grade is expected to be over 1.75pc. The shipment will likely be sold to Glencore's customers in China, with further shipments to be made in due course as stockpiles accumulate, Pacific Nickel Mines told Argus.
Pacific Nickel Mines had expected its first ore shipment to take place in November. Tropical cyclone Jasper, which formed over the Solomon Sea last week, delayed the arrival of the barges and Glencore's transport ship, but the Kolosori site has emerged unscathed. The site did not suffer any loss of stockpiles, equipment or damage to infrastructure, Pacific Nickel Mines said.
Pacific Nickel Mines commenced mining operations at Kolosari in October and signed a six-year offtake agreement with Switzerland-based mining and trading firm Glencore in 2022 for the mine's entire production.
The firm will soon turn its attention to its Jejovo nickel project — located 70km northwest of the Kolosori project — once it receives a mining lease from the government, its chief executive officer Geoff Hiller said.
Pacific Nickel Mines owns 80pc of the Jejovo project while local landowners own the remaining 20pc. The company executed a surface access rights agreement with local landowners in October and has been working on obtaining a development consent, both of which are key documents necessary to procure a mining lease from the Soloman Islands mines department.
