Another nickel operation has been put on hold, with Mallee Resources announcing its flagship Avebury mine will transition into a care and maintenance program.
Another nickel operation has been put on hold, with Mallee Resources announcing its flagship Avebury mine will transition into a care and maintenance program.
Voluntary administrators were appointed to West Perth-based Mallee Resources in September after the company found it had insufficient capital to repay its debts.
The receivers and managers of the Mallee Resources group of companies today announced the Avebury nickel mine would transition into a care-and-maintenance program.
In their statement, the receivers and managers said they have been operating the mine while looking for a long-term buyer but the decline in nickel price had adversely impacted the sale process and interest.
The Avebury mine update follows the closure of several major nickel operations, while others have been placed on hold, amid depressed nickel prices.
Data from a Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA-commission report released today show the country’s nickel industry was on the brink of collapse with 10,000 jobs and $1.8 billion worth of investment at risk.
Five nickel mines have closed since September 2023, wiping out 33 per cent of domestic production.
Receiver Scott Langdon said the oversupply of low-quality nickel from Indonesia made the higher-quality ores from Australian mines uncompetitive with the latter being of higher cost.
“As a number of other Australian miners have recently experienced, without a structural change in the market to properly value low carbon, battery-grade nickel, local mine operations will continue to be disadvantaged compared to their competitors,” he said.
"It is disappointing that despite interest from global participants, current market conditions have presented challenges to finding the right path for a sale at this point in time.
“These external factors left us with no other choice than transitioning to a care and maintenance program for Avebury.”
The Avebury nickel mine is located about eight kilometres west of Zeehan, in a mining district on the western coast of Tasmania.
Mallee acquired Avebury from Allegiance Mining, a subsidiary of Dundas.
About 150 staff were hired to work on Avebury mine when it was reopened after Mallee’s acquisition in November 2022.
