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Operations Overview

The Murrin Murrin nickel cobalt operation is located between Leonora and Laverton in the North Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. It is a joint venture between Murrin Murrin Holdings Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Minara Resources Limited (60%) and Glenmurrin Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Glencore International AG (40%).

Operations commenced in 1999 and are based on the mining and processing of laterite ore. Nickel laterite mineralisation is a geological term used to describe the concentration of nickel and cobalt in silicate minerals, most often clays, due to extensive weathering of olivine rich ultramafic rocks. Approximately 75% of the world's nickel is contained in laterites.

Conventional open pit mining techniques are used, followed by ore processing comprising pressure acid leaching, mixed sulphide precipitation, cobalt refining and nickel refining. The production process also produces ammonium sulphate as a by-product, which is sold to the Western Australian fertiliser market.

Production in 2009 was 32,977 tonnes of nickel (2008: 30,514 tonnes) and 2,350 tonnes of cobalt.

At the end of 2009, the Murrin Murrin project had total resources of 283 million tonnes and total reserves of 219 million tonnes. Based on these estimations, the project has sufficient ore for the next 30 years of operation. Click on the link to review Minara's Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves Statement.

Through its research and development program, Minara has used technological improvements and engineering solutions to improve plant reliability and throughput and to increase nickel and cobalt production levels. This includes Minara's research into heap leaching technology which offers the opportunity to exploit low grade ores in a cost effective manner and will deliver a second, independent nickel stream further utilising the plant's refining area.

The 200,000 tonnes per annum heap leach demonstration plant produces approximately 1,500 tonnes of nickel metal and 125 tonnes of cobalt metal per annum.