The Western Areas Ltd (ASX: WSA) share price is down 3.3% to $2.10 this morning after the WA-based nickel miner reported that it's on track to meet full year production guidance.
For the quarter it produced 5,851 tonnes of nickel to take the half-year total to 11,719 tonnes, with a unit cash cost of $3.15/lb for the quarter.
The miner also produced positive operating cash flow of $18.2 million for the quarter and is well funded for further exploration with $134.3 million cash in hand. It will pay out $5.5 million in dividends to shareholders over the most recent half year, which translates to a fully franked 2 cents per share.
Western Areas claims to own Australia's highest grade nickel mines and to be strongly focused on shareholder returns, although its share price is down around 15% over the past 5 years before dividends.
It has strong production capacity but remains a play on the nickel price which is hard for forecast.
