Neometals revealed plans to spin off its Mt Edwards Nickel Project in Western Australia into a pure nickel exploration and development company called Widgie Nickel.
The Australian mineral project developer said that its board after carefully reviewing multiple strategic options available, has proposed the demerger of the nickel project to realise value for shareholders.
Neometals will pursue listing for Widgie Nickel on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Located 90km south of Kalgoorlie and 35km west of Kambalda, the Mt Edwards Nickel Project has a mineral resource inventory of 162,000 tonnes of contained nickel across 11 deposits.
Neometals managing director Chris Reed said: “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.”
The Mt Edwards Nickel Project is located on the Widgiemooltha Dome, which is a nickel sulphide camp that has been home to over seven historical nickel mines. Recently, Mincor Resources’ flagship Cassini nickel mine had recently started production.
Reed said: “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.”
Neometals had acquired the nickel project in 2018. Since then, it has been reviewing and advancing the project’s mineral resources to come up with a strong basis for mining studies to assess the development of various short lead-time nickel sulphide deposits.
The company said that the studies have now advanced to a stage where a stand-alone nickel focussed exploration and development firm is the optimal structure to take the development to the next stage, and eventually into production.
The demerger of the Mt Edwards Nickel Project will be subject to Neometals’ shareholder approval and other things.
