IGO Interactive Annual Report 2018

OVERVIEW Nova is located in the Great Western Woodland, approximately 140km east north east of Norseman. The Ngadju are the Traditional Owners and custodians of this area and their native title was recognised by the Federal Court on 21 November 2014. The Nova deposit was discovered in July 2012 and development of the site commenced in January 2015. Commercial production commenced in July 2017 and the operation reached nameplate production in the September 2017 quarter. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT Since the commencement of the Nova decline, our contractor, Barminco, has completed 26.4 kilometres of underground development. The mine has been in commercial production since 1 July 2017 with the mine and processing plant achieving production rates at or above nameplate capacity in the second half of FY18. All construction activities have now been completed. FY18 PRODUCTION Nova production for FY18 fell just short of full year guidance. By the end of FY18 the mine had demonstrated steady state production above nameplate and the ability to outpace the processing plant. Capital development is now largely complete with some sustaining capital development remaining over the life of the mine. We continue to progress options to increase throughput beyond the nameplate capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum. MINING Grade control drilling at Nova and Bollinger was completed in July 2018 which has enabled the upgrade of the Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve JORC classifications to the highest level of confidence and derisking the Life of Mine plan. PROCESSING The processing plant has performed well in FY18 and during the June 2018 quarter extended trials at an above nameplate processing rate were carried out to identify bottlenecks to achieve higher production rates on an ongoing basis. As a result of the trials a capital works program to address these bottlenecks is planned for FY19. The tailings storage facility continues to be used as a water storage dam, and both bore field expansions and water use efficiency projects have been completed to reach a buffer of 100% more raw water availability than required for current operations. Electric power continues to be provided by Zenith Pacific’s 20 mega watt power station. Plans to construct a 6.7 mega watt solar power station are well advanced and a decision to proceed is expected in FY19. NEAR-MINE EXPLORATION The majority of the focus during FY18 has been on the completion of underground grade control drilling with limited near-mine exploratory drilling. In FY19, further exploration drilling from underground will target resource extensions and new areas of mineralisation outside the existing resource envelope. A 3D seismic survey of 58 square kilometres was completed by HiSeis Pty Ltd with the interpreted models due in early FY19. A budgeted 20,000 metres of diamond drilling is planned for FY19 to test targets identified by the seismic survey. DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING During FY18, IGO commenced a project to understand the downstream processing potential to directly produce nickel and cobalt sulphate using a hydrometallurgical process rather than producing nickel metal via conventional smelting and refining. A scoping study demonstrated that, subject to metallurgical testwork, the process would be financially feasible. This was then followed by metallurgical testwork using Wood Mining and Minerals Australia (Wood) and SGS Australia, this testwork successfully produced nickel sulphate hexahydrate crystals and demonstrated that the process was technically feasible. A pre-feasibility study has been commenced. NOVA OPERATION IGO ANNUAL REPORT 2018— 17