The company said it sold 27,819 tonnes of nickel in concentrate during the 12 months ending in June, breaking the previous record of 26,271t set in the previous year.

Production, unit cash costs, capital expenditure and exploration figures for the year are still in the process of being finalised, but the miner has confirmed they will be in line or better than guidance.

A more comprehensive quarterly report is scheduled for release later this month.

The initial report, however, has already prompted encouraging feedback from brokers.

“We regard today's release as an incremental positive for the company,” RBC Capital Markets said.



“We forecast an FY13 all-in sustaining cash cost of $A5.57 per pound for Western Areas, making it the only producer in our ASX-listed nickel coverage with costs below the spot price of $US6.30/lb and largely the reason why the company remains our only outperform-rated company in our ASX nickel coverage.”

The news builds on a particularly strong March quarter that saw the miner produce 7146t of nickel in ore, up 2.7% from the previous period.

The output combined 82,700t of ore grading 4.9% nickel from the company’s Flying Fox mine in Western Australia, and 59,300t of ore grading 5.2% nickel from the nearby Spotted Quoll mine.

Production during this period coincided with the reintroduction of a twin boom jumbo at Flying Fox to concentrate on capital development of the bottom of the mine and the implementation of choke slot blasts against paste fill at Spotted Quoll.

The performance boost also reinforces the optimism expressed by Western Areas leadership over a challenging year that saw the company’s share price fall as low as $A2.20 in June.

Following a 35% share plummet in April, chairman and major shareholder Terry Streeter and managing director Dan Lougher moved to reassure investors by taking advantage of the lowered price and upping their respective stakes in the company.

Lougher said today that the sales result combined with an “unrelenting” focus on cost management allowed for an unaudited company cash position of $80 million, versus a projected $70 million.

“Accordingly, our free cashflow generation for the quarter will be around $22 million, again underpinning the company’s reputation for successful delivery and well-run operations during a difficult commodity price environment,” he said.

“The ability of the Western Areas workforce to deliver what will be 12 consecutive quarterlies without an operation downside is magnificent, and it would be remiss not to highlight that these results have been achieved with no LTIs”

Lougher said the company’s last lost-time injury was reported in January 2012, meaning the LTI frequency rate for fiscal 2013 was zero.

“These results are not achieved by chance and I would like to formally acknowledge the entire Western Areas team which includes our service partners,” he said.

In May, the company upgraded its production guidance for the year from 25,500t of nickel in concentrate to 26,500t.

Guidance for unit cash costs was lowered from $3/lb to $2.90.

Shares in Western Areas were unchanged today at $2.64.