London-listed miner European Nickel Plc said on Monday mineable reserves at its nickel project in Turkey had increased almost 30 percent, boosting planned metal output by 40 percent. European Nickel said reserves at its Caldag mine in western Turkey had risen to 36 million tonnes of ore, grading 1.3 percent nickel.
That would allow output to rise to 21,000 tonnes per year of nickel from 15,000 tonnes without lowering the planned mine life.
Operating costs were seen falling significantly, the company said in a news release.
"At the current planned rate of throughput this (rise in reserves) will result in an increase in the annual production of contained nickel for a nominal increase in capital investment," said Simon Purkiss, Enickel's managing director.
Recoverable nickel has increased from 227,000 tonnes of metal to about 310,000 tonnes over a 15-year mine life.
Earlier reserves figures were based on the company's unpublished estimates.
Caldag is being mined by open pit method followed by a simple leach process using sulphuric acid to produce a mixed nickel-cobalt hydroxide -with a 30 percent metal content - from normally hard-to-treat laterite ore.
The company has built and irrigated -with dilute sulphuric acid - three trial heaps. It said the first heap had leached 63 percent of the contained nickel and the solution was being treated in the downstream plant.
ENickel said it was producing some two tonnes per week of nickel-cobalt hydroxide from the pilot processing plant.
Subject to funding, the firm expects to start construction of a full-scale facility in early 2006 and to start production a year later.
Some of the plant's initial output had been tested by BHP Billiton at its Ravensthorpe refinery. ENickel said it had sold the first 40 tonnes of hydroxide to BHPB for bulk testing.
The intermediate product will also be shopped to nickel refineries in Europe and China.
ENickel was indicated at 40.959 pence at 0948 GMT, up 4.3 percent from Friday's close.