European Nickel appoints HDI representative John McManus to the board

European Nickel (LON:ENK, ASX:ENK) has appointed John Wallace McManus to its board of directors, where he will represent the Hunter Dickinson group (HDI) - a major shareholder and strategic partner.
The company recently agreed the partnership with HDI, which saw the Canadian firm invest US$60m in European Nickel in return for a 27% equity stake.

The company highlighted that McManus has over 28 years experience in the mining industry and he is the Senior Operations VP at HDI’s Taseko Mines.
At Taseko, McManus has managed a $300m production expansion at the Gibraltar Mine, oversaw a 200% increase in ore reserves and he was involved in successfully establishing an $800m Gibraltar joint venture with a consortium of Japanese traders and smelters.

“John's wealth of operational experience will complement our management team as we deliver the Çaldağ project through development and construction into productionThe HDI partnership was established in July, and at the time European Nickel noted the benefits of the deal. The company said that it gained more than the much-needed cash boost, with the tie-up also providing access to a whole array of expertise that would be difficult and expensive for a small miner to recruit.

ENK’s flagship asset is the Çaldağ project, which offers near-term nickel production and will be one of the largest foreign direct investments in Turkey's mining industry. With proven JORC reserves of 33.2Mt (million tonnes) at 1.13% Ni, the mine is targeting 20,000 tonnes per annum of nickel production over a 14 year life of mine.

Using low cost, environmentally friendly, heap leach technology, it anticipates a net cash operating cost of US$3.59 per pound of nickel and project capital expenditure of US$277 million, which equates to a capital cost per annual pound of nickel of US$6.12. The project's NPV is US$490 million, at a 10% discount rate, with an internal rate of return of 32.4% at a nickel price of just US$7 per pound.