Panoramic cuts workforce at Lanfranchi

Panoramic Resources has responded to the slump in nickel prices by halting production in the Deacon orebody at its Lanfranchi project, resulting in half the project staff being laid off over the weekend.

The miner said the remaining employees would be transferred to its Savannah operation or retained at Lanfranchi, where it will continue airleg mining and development work on the Lower Schmitz reserve.

The company also flagged a potential further review of operations in the Lanfranchi orebody should the nickel price drop even lower.

The changes follow an earthquake in the vicinity of the Deacon orebody, though the company said this did not cause any damage of consequence.

A ramp up of mining of Lower Schmitz may occur in March next year, should economic conditions be favourable.

Today's news followed the announcement late last Friday that Panoramic and Matsa Resources had sold their 70:30 joint-venture Mt Henry Gold project to Metals X for $24.75 million in MLX shares.

Panoramic shares were down 3.7 per cent to 39.5 cents a share at 1145 AWST.