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The Cawse nickel mine in 2007, one year before its closure.

investigation
investigation
MiningPremium
investigation
Why two zombie mines are primed to maul WA’s rehab fund

A private company is less than three weeks away from defaulting on liabilities tied to a derelict nickel mine, threatening the State Government with a record clean-up bill well beyond $100 million.

Adrian Rauso

The Ravensthorpe nickel mine is on the market

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MiningCommentsPremium
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Owner of Ravensthorpe nickel mine keen for offers

One of the biggest mines caught up in the implosion of Western Australia’s nickel industry could soon have a new owner.  

Adrian Rauso

Nickel West was shuttered in October 2024.

NickelPremiumNickel spikes as Chinese buying fuels metals surge

Nickel spiked by more than 10 per cent in London, notching the biggest gain in more than three years as surging investor interest in China helps to turbocharge a broad rally in metals markets.

Mark Burton

The Bald Hill lithium mine is located approximately 50km south east of Kambalda in the Goldfields region of Western Australia.

MiningCommentsPremiumFive WA mines to watch in 2026

Among the hundreds of active or idle mines dotted across the State, there are five facing a monumental year. Thousands of jobs and vast sums of taxpayer money are at stake.

Adrian Rauso

Nickel is still among this year’s weaker performers on the London Metal Exchange.

MiningNickel hits nine-month high as Indonesia cuts back

Nickel has hit the highest since March after top producer Indonesia flagged plans to cut supply in order to boost prices.

Bloomberg 

The mothballed Ravensthorpe nickel mine.

MiningPremiumGlimmer of hope for WA nickel mine revival

Plans are afoot to expand the shuttered Ravensthorpe nickel operation while the battery metal’s price remains in the doldrums. 

Adrian Rauso

BHP Nickel West's Mt Keith nickel operations near Wiluna

MiningCommentsPremiumCould Liontown and IGO snap up some of BHP’s WA Nickel?

Battery metal miners Liontown Resources and IGO are likely among the potential buyers sniffing around BHP’s idle WA Nickel division.

Adrian Rauso

Bauxite and alumina has the highest injury frequency rate among WA’s most worked commodities, according to WorkSafe data.

MiningPremiumREVEALED: WA mining workers most likely to be injured on job

West Australian miners of this commodity were almost three times more likely to get injured than they were in tin, tantalum and lithium. SEE THE TRENDS.

Danielle Le Messurier

BUS IGO chief executive Ivan Vella speaking at a WA Mining Club lunch at Burswood.

MiningDeadlocked refinery blows $955m hole in IGO balance sheet

Losses from a trouble-plagued refinery that IGO says has “no pathway” to making money in the long-term and woeful lithium prices have left the miner massively in the red and investors without a dividend.

Simone Grogan

Vladimir Putin (left) and Vladimir Potanin

The West Australian exclusive
The West Australian exclusive
MiningPremium
The West Australian exclusive
REVEALED: West Perth letterbox linked to Russian spy ring

A Russian miner that harboured convicted spies in Western Australia controls a West Perth shell company inexplicably spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

Adrian Rauso

Delegates in the main exhibitors hall during the Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum.

Diggers and DealersGoldies hit WA’s biggest mining forum minted with $7.5b

Local gold miners are making the annual pilgrimage to their mecca with piggy banks bursting at the seams. 

Adrian Rauso

Outgoing South32 chief executive Graham Kerr.

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MiningCommentsPremium
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South32 washes its hands of nickel amid dirty market change

The mixed metals miner is taking a $US130 million ($200m) accounting hit to sell the Cerro Matoso nickel operation in Colombia to a Turkish tycoon’s company for up to $US100m.

Adrian Rauso and Cheyanne Enciso

BHP has suspended its WA nickel operations including the Kalgoorlie smelter (pictured) amid global oversupply. (Marion Rae/AAP PHOTOS)

MiningForecast further dampens Nickel West revival hopes

The ‘millionaires factory’ has again downgraded its prognosis for nickel and by virtue increased the probability BHP’s idle Nickel West is going to shut permanently.

Adrian Rauso

Clive Palmer

MiningPremiumCITIC rejects role in ‘silly’ Palmer plays

CITIC Pacific tells court its Cape Preston deal does not include underwriting Clive Palmers “silly” and “idiosyncratic” plays.

Neale Prior

CKB Community Pavillion Announcement

MiningPremiumBHP begins doling out $20m WA Nickel fund

A new pavilion in Kalgoorlie is the first investment from a $20 million fund BHP set up following the suspension of its sprawling Western Australian nickel business last year.

Adrian Rauso

Clive Palmer is trying to pin the blame on the collapse of Queensland Nickel on CITIC Pacific.

MiningCommentsClive says CITIC left nickel play without dime

Clive Palmer begins campaign to blame Cape Preston iron ore miner CITIC Pacific for $1 billion loss in Queensland Nickel collapse.

Neale Prior

Clive Palmer

MiningPremiumPalmer in rush to fix $1.8b Queensland Nickel claim

Royalties billionaire Clive Palmer dealt last minute blow in bid to blame CITIC for nickel wreckage.

Neale Prior

The Greenbushes Talison lithium operation in WA’s south.

MiningPremiumMines boss tips nickel price recovery to lag behind lithium

Mines and Petroleum Minister David Michael is tipping a nickel and lithium price recovery after more than a year in the doldrums, pointing to continued exploration as proof of optimism

Rebecca Le May

Shire of Coolgardie president Mal Cullen.

The West Australian exclusive
The West Australian exclusive
MiningPremium
The West Australian exclusive
Council slugs miners with ‘outrageous’ double rate hike

A scandal-plagued Goldfields council facing financial ruin is raring to jack up its annual mining rates by 119 per cent in a gut punch to local mineral explorers.

Adrian Rauso

Drilling at Gonneville

MiningPremiumIron poured into Chalice plan for Gonneville

Another metal could soon be ‘unexpectedly’ added to the mix of Chalice Mining’s proposed mixed metals mine on farmland near Toodyay.

Adrian Rauso

BUS IGO chief executive Ivan Vella speaking at a WA Mining Club lunch at Burswood.

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MiningPremium
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IGO signals it’s close to pulling the plug on Kwinana

IGO boss Ivan Vella is running out of patience with the perennially problematic lithium hydroxide refinery it shares with Tianqi.

Adrian Rauso

Nickel processing plant at Minara Resources Murrin Murrin nickel mine.

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MiningCommentsPremium
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Last WA nickel hope rests on knife edge over royalty relief

Ongoing talks between Mines Minister David Michael and Glencore over mining royalties could determine the fate of WA’s last nickel hope and the 1000-plus jobs it sustains.

Adrian Rauso

BHP NickelWest's Mt Keith nickel operations.

EnergyPremiumGreen light for power plant primed for a Nickel West restart

Canadian energy giant TransAlta has won the approval of the regulator for a new gas power plant that would support a restart of BHP‘s mothballed WA nickel operations.

Sean Smith

Wyloo chief executive Luca Giacovazzi.

MiningCommentsForrest’s Canadian nickel dream picks up steam

The $1 billion-plus Ring of Fire project being developed by Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s private mining company is picking up steam as Canadians warm up to the development.

Adrian Rauso