Nickel miner Mincor Resources has warned it may suspend operations at its Miitel and Mariners mines, in Western Australia.

MD David Moore told delegates at the Paydirt Nickel conference that, should nickel prices not improve in the near term, the mines would be mothballed until prices returned to more optimum levels.

The strategy is simply to survive at the moment and then to thrive as the prices rise. We have to manage through the downturn and optimize our cash flow and, if that means shutting mines, then we shut mines. We are in the business to make money, not to mine, Moore said.

Mincor earlier this year launched a revised mining strategy at Mariners and Miitel designed to protect its operational capability and ore reserves through the price downturn, while optimizing short-term cash flows and preparing for a transitional period of suspended production, if necessary, during which Mincor’s resources would be focused on exploration and development of its suite of growth projects.

As part of this strategy, it also stopped capital development at both its Mariners and Miitel mines, resulting in some 88 redundancies.

• [Editor:Juan]