Streeter to miss Western Areas opening

Western Areas chairman Terry Streeter will miss the official opening of the company's concentrator tomorrow as an 18-day trial with unrelated business Western Areas Exploration begins.

Nickel miner Western Areas will formally open the Cosmic Boy nickel concentrator, which produced its first nickel concentrate late last month.

The concentrator will allow the miner to optimise its nickel recoveries and potentially blend the concentrate for any future offtake partners.

At full capacity, the concentrator will operate at 300,000 tonnes per annum or 25,000t each month

However Mr Streeter will not be present at the opening ceremony, a spokesperson told WA Business News.

Instead Mr Streeter, as a defendant, will be in the Supreme Court for day two of an 18-day trial that started today.

Western Areas Exploration (WAE) is looking to gain a portion of the profits made by Mr Streeter and director David Cooper after both were allegedly presented with a potential nickel opportunity by three geologists.

Its understood Lex Brailey, Garry Connell, Guy LeClezio and Gavin Redmond are the some of the businessmen behind WAE.

It's claimed that Messrs Streeter and Cooper, who were both on WAE's board at the time, pursued the nickel prospect to float Western Areas NL.

The spokesperson said the plaintiffs presented their opening remarks today.