Yakabindie

The Yakabindie nickel mine is located south of the giant BHP Billiton Nickel West owned Mount Keith nickel operation, 400 kilometres north of the historic mining centre of Kalgoorlie, near Wiluna, in the Eastern Goldfields Region of Western Australia. The Yakabindie mineral deposit that is also owned by BHP Billiton contains cobalt and nickel.

Yakabindie Nickel Project Received Federal Government Environmental Approval in 2004

The Yakabindie nickel project received Australian federal government environmental approval in April, 2004, after considerable oppositon to the project was tabled by the traditional owners of the land on which the project is to be developed. The environmental approval allowed the then owner WMC Resources to mine for nickel in the project area.

Yakabindie Purchased by WMC Resources From Rio Tinto

The Yakabindie nickel project had been purchased by WMC Resources from Rio Tinto in 2001. The mine is situated only 22 kilometres south of the large WMC Resources Mount Keith nickel mining operation. Making it an important acquisition for WMC Resources in that it has the potential to compliment the company's existing assets in the area and give it further development options into the future.

The Yakabindie nickel project complimented WMC Resources other nickel assets in the area as the Yakabindie deposit hosted an estimated resource itself of 289 million tonnes grading at 0.58 percent nickel. In March 2005 BHP Billiton acquired all of WMC Resouces along with the Yakabindie project.

BHP Billiton Acquires Yakabindie Through WMC Resources Takeover

Since the BHP Billiton takeover of WMC Resources, the new operating company, BHP Billiton Nickel West, has been constantly reviewing Yakabindie's future prospects. Although it was once referred to as a major discovery by WMC Resources, a pre-feasibility study undertaken by BHP Billiton Nickel West, has referred to the Yakabindie nickel and cobalt deposit as being a large, low-grade deposit. Its development has therefore been deferred, although, it is still looked on as being a good project but not a priority. The ore at Yakabindie is of a similar grade to that of the neighbouring Mount Keith ore but with a higher impurity component, in the form of talc. For this reason BHP Billiton Nickel West is focusing on expanding its higher grade Leinster open cut mining operation.

BHP Billiton Nickel West is a Mine to Market Business Operation

BHP Billiton Nickel West is a fully integrated mine site, to market place, business that consists of three operating nickel mines in Western Australia; the Mount Keith open cut nickel mine and the two Leincester underground nickel mines. Both the Mount Keith and Leincester mines have their own concentrator plants. The company has a nickel concentrator plant and smelter situated at Kalgoorlie which produces nickel concentrate and nickel matte as well as a plant at Kwinana that produces nickel powder and nickel metal such as a London Metal Exchange grade product in the form of nickel briquettes as well as a range of other saleable products.