Minara Holds Nickel Output Guidance at 30-34,000/t

SHANGHAI, Sep. 1 -- Australia's second-largest nickel miner, Minara Resources (MRE.AX), said on Tuesday it aims to conduct and complete a plant maintenance shut down in October and kept its 2010 production guidance unchanged.

Minara still hopes to yield in the lower range of between 30,000 and 34,000 tonnes of nickel from its Murrin Murrin joint venture in west Australia, where January-June output was reduced because of a pipeline breakdown in May. [ID:nWNAS8850]

"Minara's focus is to complete our statutory maintenance shutdown in October and then consolidate a steady production profile at Murrin Murrin," it said.

Murrin Murrin was built in the late 1990s by the then Anaconda Nickel and was designed to yield more than 40,000 tonnes of the raw stainless steelmaking alloy annually.

Using untested leaching technology to glean nickel from ore in the Australian outback, Murrin Murrin has yet to reach design production levels.

The Murrin Murrin plant is 60 percent owned by Minara and 40 percent by Glencore International AG.