News

September 10, 2008

Independence Group Has A Couple Of Winners At the Long Nickel Mine and the Tropicana Gold Discovery

By Charles Wyatt

To suggest that Chris Bonwick, managing director of ASX-listed Independence Group, is pissed off with the current rating of his shares understates the situation by a country mile. At the beginning of August he showed his feelings by announcing a buy-back of 10 per cent of the shares as he felt this was in the interests of shareholders. The shares, after all, are now priced at A$2.85 compared with the A$8.50 they were trading at in May, and while a fall of that proportion might be understandable under current conditions for an exploration company, Independence is certainly not that. Back in 2002 it acquired the Long Nickel mine from WMC and brought it back into production almost immediately. Cash flow from this profitable mine allows it to invest in exploration as well as providing funding for future growth. It’s the reason Independence can stand up as a 30 per cent partner with AngloGold Ashanti on the big Tropicana gold discovery in Western Australia.

Historically the Long Nickel Mine represents the second largest concentration of nickel in the Kambalda region. Back in the day it qualified as one of WMC's longest operating nickel mines, with a 21 year mine life. Total production to closure in 1999 was 5.43 million tonnes at an average reconciled grade of 3.7% nickel, giving 203,184 nickel tonnes.  Since Independence recommissioned the mine in 2002, exploration and development activities have resulted in the discovery of an additional...