IGO boss Ivan Vella is working through the "difficult process" of redundancies after two of its nickel mines were put on ice, but spruiks there is still life left in Cosmos.
IGO boss Ivan Vella is working through the "difficult process" of redundancies after two of its nickel mines were put on ice, but spruiks there is still life left in Cosmos.
The chief executive, who made his first speaking appearance at Diggers and Dealers on Monday, says nickel isn’t over in Western Australia, pointing to its Nova mine.
He also said that it wasn't the end of the road for its Cosmos nickle mine, which was moved into care and maintenance in the June quarter due to the nickel price crunch, reduction in mine life, capacity delays and forecast increases in costs.
Mr Vella said under the right conditions the team could bring that asset back online.
“We know there is a resource there, but what we need to do is understand it better,” he said of the mine located 30 kilometres north of Leinster.
Mr Vella said the team was assessing how to lower costs to extract that resource. He said if they got into the right territory, they could restart operations, which "was a fantastic option to work through".
IGO is also preparing to transition its Forrestania nickel operation- nearing the end of its mine life- 400km east of Perth into care and maintenance by the end of the year.
As a result, and due to changes with executive leadership portfolios and a reshaped strategy, IGO flagged a reduction in its corporate and exploration teams, although the exact number is unknown.
“I don't want to get into numbers, I'm really sensitive about people and respectful that this is a difficult process,” he told the press.
“We went through the Cosmos transition to care and maintenance and that impacted a number of people there, we were very careful how we went through that, tried to redeploy everyone we could back into other parts of the business.”
He said the residual workers not folded into IGO’s other operations had quickly found other jobs in the industry.
“I think many of them were sad because they invested heavily and bought into the Cosmos project, so that wasn't a great outcome,” he said.
“But Forrestania again, this isn't a surprise, this is mine closing has been coming for a long time. They're very understanding, but equally sad as well.”
IGO's recent exploration business review lowered its spend to between $50 million to $60 million for financial year 2025.
Nickel aside, Mr Vella said lithium and copper were very attractive in terms of exploration.
“We know the demand growth for lithium is significant. It won't be Greenbushes, but if we can find another good resource that's obviously very exciting,” he said.
“And copper, everyone's talking about, its super important in the world energy transition and if we can find some more, I think that'd be very wealthy."
IGO owns 49 per cent of the Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia (TLEA) business, which owns 51 per cent of Greenbushes operator Talison alongside Albemarle.
TLEA runs a lithium hydroxide plant at Kwinana, which has endured some issues.
When asked why Australia couldn’t get its lithium hydroxide plants up and running in the same manner as China, Mr Vella said the main issue was scale.
“There are clusters of capability in China, the skills they have, the operators working on those plants are degree qualified masters or have PHDs,” he said.
“The other thing they have is the suppliers and the equipment providers that support them, whether it's for a shutdown or some equipment change, they're on their doorstep and then they’re available to do that because there’s 60 of those plants across China.
“There is just a huge scale advantage.”
The mining executive said the key was government focus on low cost, reliable green power and shared infrastructure, alongside productive labour.
“We need to continue to lower our capital intensity and improve our competitiveness, those are the things that are important,” he said.
In response to whether he thought another lithium hydroxide plant would be built in Australia, Mr Vella said it was difficult to judge.
“Right now, if we look into the industry and obviously Albemarle's decision, it shows you just how challenged it is. The margins are very low and there's a lot of stress on the industry,” he told journalists.
“I just finished talking about how much growth is coming and that demand supply balance not being smooth.
“It's very difficult to look forward with the crystal ball and see how it plays out.”
