Qualla: Cosmos Nickel Mine

Cosmos Nickel Mine: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA, Public domain. Most nickel mines in Western Australia scrape a living from ore grading one to three percent metal. When Jubilee Gold Mines drilled into the Cosmos deposit in 1997, they pulled up rock running between five and twelve percent. In the unglamorous world of base metals, that is the equivalent of striking a vein of treasure. A company that had been hunting gold abruptly found itself sitting on one of the most concentrated nickel finds in the state, 38 kilometres north-northwest of Leinster. What followed over the next quarter-century was a saga of soaring fortunes, billion-dollar takeovers and repeated collapses, all playing out on country that the Tjiwarl people have called home for tens of thousands of years.

Read more: Cosmos Nickel Mine on Qualla

Image: NASA | Public domain

Cosmos Nickel Mine: An Accidental Fortune

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA, Public domain. Jubilee Gold Mines had switched from gold to nickel exploration only the year before the discovery, a gamble that paid off spectacularly. The Cosmos ore was extraordinary, its grade several times richer than the West Australian norm, and the company moved fast. It planned to inve...

Read more: Cosmos Nickel Mine on Qualla

Image: NASA | Public domain

Cosmos Nickel Mine: Billions, Then a Bust

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA, Public domain. In 2007, with nickel prices surging, the Swiss-based giant Xstrata bought Jubilee Gold, and the Cosmos mine with it, for A$3.1 billion. The timing was disastrous. Almost immediately the nickel price crashed, and by 2012 the mine was idled and placed in care and maintenance. The c...

Read more: Cosmos Nickel Mine on Qualla

Image: NASA | Public domain

Cosmos Nickel Mine: The Odysseus Gamble

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA, Public domain. The next act came when IGO acquired Western Areas in June 2022 for A$1.26 billion, a deal that also swept in Western Areas' Forrestania nickel operations alongside IGO's own Nova nickel-copper-cobalt mine. IGO bet big on reviving Cosmos around a new underground project named Odys...

Read more: Cosmos Nickel Mine on Qualla

Image: NASA | Public domain

Cosmos Nickel Mine: Older Than the Ore

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA, Public domain. The geology that makes Cosmos valuable is ancient beyond easy comprehension, nickel sulphides locked into rock formed in the deep Archean past. But the human history of this ground runs deeper still in meaning, if not in years. The traditional owners are the Tjiwarl people, whose...

Read more: Cosmos Nickel Mine on Qualla

Image: NASA | Public domain