Consolidated Minerals Ltd (CSM) –Establishing One of WA’s Lowest Cost Long Life Nickel Producers at >10,000tpa Nickel

• With the early success from East Alpha’s Hangingwall Reef, potential in Beta West and Beta South, extensions to Beta Contact, mining of Beta Hangingwall (above both the 20 and 40 surfaces), and initial results from the ore sorter, CSM appears to be creating a Nickel Division that has the potential to produce >10,000t Ni pa for at least 10 years at possibly one of WA’s lowest cash costs of nickel.
• On 4 May 2006, CSM’s Board announced approval for a new $14m ventilation shaft to be sunk at Beta Hunt as part of its visionary 2-phase twin-decline underground nickel exploration and development initiative. Phase 1 targets 90,000t of nickel mineralisation over 1-2km of lava channels south-east on strike from Beta and East Alpha, and Phase 2 targets another 150,000t of nickel, further SE on strike.
• The completion of the new ventilation shaft enables movement of up to 1mtpa to occur up the decline, potentially comprising 400,000tpa of Nickel ore, 300,000tpa of Gold ore and up to 300,000tpa of waste (depending on the future installation of an underground ore-sorter to remove the waste for use as backfill).
• The initial results from the A$1.5m CSM-Ultrasort developed ore sorter have been unprecedented, upgrading unsaleable 0.5%Ni low grade waste into a ~3%Ni to 4%Ni very saleable product. This product can be used as a sweetener to increase the average ore grade delivered to the old WMC concentrator, resulting in lower costs, higher recoveries and potentially greater profitability.
• The discovery of the hidden mega orebody at Greensnake and potential hidden look-alikes at Camp East and Mike East, all infer that Woodie Woodie Manganese has the potential to have a life >20 years at a production rate >1.0mtpa.