New Company “Widgie Nickel Limited” Will Seek ASX Listing
After reporting a number of significant resource upgrades at its Mt Edwards nickel project in Western Australia, Neometals Ltd (ASX:NMT) has revealed it is planning to the large historic mining asset.
The Mt Edwards Nickel Project will be demerged into a dedicated nickel exploration and development company to be called Widgie Nickel Limited.
Managing Director, Chris Reed said the Mt Edwards Project contains a material estimated Mineral Resource inventory of 162,000 tonnes of contained nickel across 11 deposits and, after careful consideration of the various strategic options available to realise value for Neometals shareholders, the Neometals board, subject to certain conditions, has approved the proposed demerger.
“The demerger and return of our Mt Edwards asset offers existing Neometals shareholders the opportunity to realise the inherent long-term value of this exciting development story in a discrete, nickel focussed corporate vehicle,” Mr Reed said.
“Widgie Nickel has a number of very exciting deposits located on the Widgiemooltha Dome, a world class nickel sulphide camp that has hosted more than seven historical nickel mines and hosts Australia’s newest high-grade nickel mine being developed less than a kilometre from our southern tenure.
“These assets are highly deserving of their own time and attention, and the recent metallurgical results from just one of the deposits that revealed high grade palladium reporting to concentrate demonstrates just some of what can be achieved with a dedicated focus.
“Widgie Nickel is strongly leveraged to both the world economic recovery and the electrification of transport which will drive increasing product demand from both the traditional steel and lithium battery sectors.
“The Neometals Board considers it is the best outcome for shareholders that a new, independent entity is established to devote the technical, human and financial resources that the Mt Edwards Project deserves.
“We are excited by what Widgie Nickel can achieve with the assets. A capital reduction and in-specie distribution to Neometals shareholders will provide a direct level of participation in a new nickel-focussed business, while Neometals remains focused on the Lithium-ion Battery Recycling JV (Primobius GmbH), the Scandinavian Vanadium Recovery Project and the Barrambie Titanium Project.”
The Mt Edwards Project consists of 49 granted and pending mining tenements.
The Mt Edwards Project is centred around the small township of Widgiemooltha, located 90 kilometres south of Kalgoorlie and 35km west of Kambalda in Western Australia. The Mt Edwards Project spans approximately 50 kilometres of strike length across the Widgiemooltha Dome. The Widgiemooltha Dome is a world class nickel sulphide camp that hosts more than seven historical nickel mines with a new mine, Mincor Resources NL’s flagship Cassini operation, recently commencing production.
The Mt Edwards Project contains a global Mineral Resources of 10.2 million tonnes at 1.6% nickel for 162,510 tonnes of contained nickel across 11 deposits (refer to Table 1 on next page).
Since acquisition in 2018, Neometals’ has been reviewing and advancing the Mineral Resources at the Mt Edwards Project to provide a sound basis for mining studies to evaluate the development of a number of short lead-time nickel sulphide deposits.
These have now progressed to the point where a stand-alone nickel focussed exploration and development company is the optimal structure to take the development forward to the next stage, and ultimately with a goal of entering production in the coming years.
For further information please visit: https://www.neometals.com.au/
