The Cosmos nickel deposit was discovered in 1997 by Jubilee Gold Mines NL, originally a gold explorer which had switched to nickel exploration the previous year. The Cosmos deposit stood out for its high-grade nickel ore, averaging between five and twelve percent where most other nickel mines in Western Australia operate at a one to three percent grade.[1][2]
Jubilee Gold planned to invest A$52 million in the project, of which A$38 would go towards the construction of a concentrator. In 1998, the company estimated an initial mine life of three years and a production of 30,000 tonnes of nickel in this time.[3] While mining was initially envisioned to be surface only, an expansion to potential underground mining was announced in the following year.[4]
Mining at Cosmos commenced in 2000[2] and, in 2004–05, the mine transitioned from a surface to an underground mining operation.[5] In 2007, Jubilee Gold, and thereby the mine, were acquired by Xstrata for A$3.1 billion,[6] at a time when nickel prices had surged. Shortly after the purchase by Xstrata, nickel prices crashed and, in 2012, the mine was placed in care and maintenance.[2] During its twelve years of operation, the Cosmos Nickel Mine produced 127,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate at a grade of 4.8 percent.[7] At its peak, in 2011, the mine employed over 300 people,[8] compare to just four in 2014, when in care and maintenance.[9]
Xstrata was taken over by Glencore in 2015, which soon after sold the mine to Western Areas for A$24.5 million.[2][6]
Western Areas, in turn, was taken over by IGO Limited at a cost of A$1.26 billion in 2022.[10] Of this, IGO financed A$900 million through loans and the remainder through its own capital. Apart from Cosmos, the acquisition also included Western Areas' Forrestania nickel operations in addition to its own Nova nickel-copper-cobalt operation.[11]
Shortly after the purchase, IGO announced that, to restart the operation and increase the concentrator size at Cosmos from 750,000 to one million tonnes per annum, an A$825 million investment was needed, three times the original estimate by the previous owner. At the time, IGO estimated that nickel production at Cosmos would recommence in 2024.[10]
Mining at Cosmos is planned to be centred around the Odysseus mine, which is expected to have a mine life of ten years and to produce over 10,000 tonnes of nickel per annum.[11]
References
^B. Craven; T. Rovira; T. Grammer; M. Styles (1 June 2000), "The role of geophysics in the discovery and delineation of the Cosmos Nickel Sulphide Deposit, Leinster area, Western Australia", Exploration Geophysics, 31 (2), CSIRO PUBLISHING: 201–209, ISSN1834-7533
