Poseidon finds gold use for Black Swan

Poseidon Nickel and Aphrodite Gold have agreed to form a jointly-owned company to own Poseidon’s processing facilities at its Black Swan nickel operation and Aphrodite’s nearby gold tenements.

The special purpose vehicle would be 50:50 owned by Poseidon and Aphrodite, and would wholly own the 2.2 million tonne per annum Black Swan processing facility and associated infrastructure (which have been on care and maintenance since 2009), along with Aphrodite’s gold tenements located 65 kilometres away from the facility.

“Poseidon and Aphrodite have been in discussions for over six months and the memorandum of understanding is an excellent result for both companies,” Poseidon chairman Chris Indermaur said.

“Entering into an MoU with Aphrodite unlocks the existing capital at Black Swan operations in what continues to be a very difficult nickel market.

“Poseidon plans to use existing plant and infrastructure at Black Swan to facilitate a transition to becoming a major gold producer in the highly prospective Goldfields region.

“It is however important to stress that when the nickel market does improve, nickel production at Black Swan can restart via a parallel and independent circuit.  Poseidon would retain all nickel ore at Black Swan and Silver Swan.”

In November, Poseidon entered into an agreement with Kidman Resources for the use of processing infrastructure at its mothballed Lake Johnston operation to process lithium from Kidman's Mt Holland project.

Kidman was the subject of a Supreme Court battle over ownership of lithium rights at Mt Holland, which was resolved last week.

Share in Poseidon were 3.1 per cent lower to 3.1 cents each at midday.