Savannah North now has an indicated and inferred resource of10.27 million tonnes at 1.7% nickel for 175,100 tonnes of contained nickel,74,400t copper and 12,700t cobalt.

The previous October 2015 estimate was 109,600t nickel at1.59% nickel and the new estimate is a 60% increase on the initial August 2015figure.

It boosts the total resources at the Savannah operation to226,000t nickel, 104,700t copper and 15,300t cobalt.

The total resource is now around 3.5 times what it was whenthe Savannah mine started in 2003.

Panoramic said the size of the resource proved that Savannahwas a major mineralised system – with plenty of upside.

The Upper zone remains open to the east and west and lessthan half of the potential mineralisation has been tested.

The Lower zone remains open down-dip to the north.

Further drilling will begin next month.

The new resource will be fed into the current feasibilitystudy into a restart of Savannah.

The mine was put on care and maintenance in May due to lownickel prices, but not before achieving record metal production of 1263t nickelin April.

The study is due for completion by December and will includeguidance as to the long-term Australian dollar nickel price required for a restart.

While the US dollar nickel price has increased from as lowas $US8286 per tonne in May to $10,213.75/t overnight, the Australian dollarhas risen from around 71.83c to 76.12c over the same period.

Shares in Panoramic rose by more than 4% to A24.5c.