LONDON (Alliance News) - Jubilee Platinum PLC on Wednesday said the tailings supply agreement covering the Leinster nickel operations in Western Australia has been terminated by commodity giant BHP Billiton PLC, but believes there is no basis for the termination.
Subsidiaries of Jubilee and BHP have had the agreement in place since 2005, and Jubilee's subsidiary, Braemore Nickel (Pty) Ltd, has told BHP that it "rejects the termination notice since it believes no factual or legal basis exists for such termination."
Braemore has been conducting an internal review of the nickel tailings project with the aim of improving the viability of the project as part of the economic evaluation of the project, which is still ongoing. Jubilee did not state whether this had anything to do with the termination notice from BHP.
"This nickel tailings project does not form part of Jubilee's earnings nor has any influence on the execution of Jubilee's platinum and chrome projects. Jubilee continues to pursue further tailings opportunities to add to its existing platinum and chrome projects and looks forward to updating the market in due course," said Jubilee.
"Jubilee, through its tailings processing subsidiaries continues successfully to develop and implement innovative processing solutions for the recovery of metals and minerals from various tailings materials. These innovations and progress offer significant opportunities across the tailings recovery spectrum," Jubilee added.
Jubilee shares were down 0.7% to 3.55 pence per share on Wednesday.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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Jubilee Metals (JLP)