Axiom Mining chief executive Ryan Mount is understandably jubilant about the company's future at its Isabel nickel project in the Solomon Islands.

The Queensland-based junior has just won a long-running David versus Goliath legal battle to regain access to the world-class nickel laterite project after a three-year wait.

The High Court win in the Solomon Islands validated Axiom's land access, awarded the company $A4.8 million in costs and dismissed the injunction that prevented development of the deposit.

Within weeks of the win in September 2014, Axiom kicked off a drilling program which has already revealed greater mineralisation than historic data indicated and Axiom plans to start mining direct shipping ore (DSO) by the end of this year.

The development will put Axiom in the unique position as the only ASX-listed tropical laterite miner.

Its large-scale Isabel nickel project, on the Santa Isabel Island, is in the same mineralised corridor as Newcrest Mining's large Lihir gold mine to the northwest.

Isabel is owned by Axiom KB, a joint venture between Axiom (80%) and the Kolosori and Bungusule landowning tribes.

"We've just won a long-standing legal battle against (Japanese giant) Sumitomo (SMM Solomon Ltd) over a world-class wet tropical laterite," Mount said.

"We believe Isabel could be one of the largest nickel laterite deposits in the Pacific and drilling this year will give us a better indication as to the actual size.

"We've had exploration success in the initial drilling delivering grades of over 2.5% nickel, putting us in a good position to supply the gap in the high grade nickel laterite market."

Sumitomo has lodged an appeal against the High Court decision but Mount is confident the ruling will go Axiom's way.

The appeal is due to be heard in the first half of this year, with the Court of Appeal (the last Court of Appeal for Sumitomo) already ordering that Axiom can commence operations whilst the appeal is pending.

The High Court ruling stated that Sumitomo's action was "an abuse of the court's process".

Axiom is well-funded as it works to establish a JORC resource to satisfy customers during the initial years of its planned 2 million tonne per annum DSO operation.

The company is confident of receiving the $4.8 million in court costs that hinge on Sumitomo losing its appeal, which should be decided in the coming months.

Axiom has also negotiated a $5 million funding agreement and strategic partnership with the Anitua Group to develop Isabel.

Anitua will bring local knowledge to the development through its experience as an exploration and mining services contractor in the Pacific.

"This funding puts us in good stead for the initial phase of our development program in 2015," Mount said.

"We will need further capital later this year but considering the High Court judgement and the recent results from our drill program, we're confident in being able to fund it in an efficient manner."

Axiom's latest exploration at Isabel has already intersected high-grade nickel laterite, including 20.7m at 1.74% nickel from surface including 12.45m at 2.28% nickel and 15.9m at 1.94% nickel from 1.5m including 8.4m at 2.59% nickel.

The grades and depths of mineralisation are higher than those recorded by previous explorers International Nickel Company (INCO) and Kaiser Engineers.

According to a report by Resource Capital Research, INCO spent $US15 million exploring Isabel after discovering the deposit in 1956; later Kaiser estimated a non-JORC compliant mineralised zone of 159 million tonnes at 1.045% nickel and 0.06% cobalt to a depth of about 6m.

Mount said Isabel showed plenty of upside from these historical reports.

"The historical data by previous explorers was essentially only drilled down to a depth of 5.5m and our drilling indicates the profile goes down to at least 20m - and potentially further in other areas," he said.

"So there's clearly significant upside for tonnage - and the grades we've been getting are also far higher than previous explorers so there's also upside to the overall average grade as well."

Axiom now has its foot to the floor as it moves towards being in production before year-end.

It estimates a moderate capital cost of $US25 million to establish the 2mtpa operation, shipping laterite ore to nickel pig iron producers in China or other existing facilities in the region.

The DSO cash flow will give Axiom the capital to consider how else to add value to the deposit that could include a simple ramp-up of production rates or on-site processing.

Analysts point to DSO nickel prices increasing due to Indonesia's continuing export ban and a likely supply deficit.

Mount said the Isabel project was very significant to both shareholders and the Solomon Island's economy.

"We have a defined program for this year," he said.

"But already we are happy not only with the with the definitive court win, but with immediate exploration success, and our strategic alliance with Anitua we remain very focused on 2015.

Axiom's portfolio of other projects in the Solomons and Queensland are currently taking a back seat.

"While we are focused on delivering the mine on Isabel Island this year, we will consider how best to realise value on our other projects in the second half of 2015," Mount said.

"We have a number of stakeholders engaged in our development program, including the Solomon Islands government, our indigenous landowner partners, our strategic partner Anitua, as well as potential customers and funders of the project.

"It's been pleasing to see all stakeholders willing to move to our timetable."

Mount believes Axiom's bottom-up approach to developing Isabel has been the key to the company's success in a country where others have had trouble developing projects.

This local support was illustrated by comments from Kolosori Trustees chairman Elliot Cortez following Axiom's High Court win.

"We look forward to working closely with Axiom to develop the nickel deposit and well as hopefully constructing a mine," Cortez was quoted as saying in a statement lodged with the ASX.

In the same statement, the Minister for Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification Moses Garu said they were pleased to have Axiom back on the land and looked forward to the results of their exploration in developing the world-class Isabel nickel deposit.

"We hope to receive a mining lease application for this project from Axiom in the not too distant future," Garu said.

Mount said Axiom believed its approach to the country had been beneficial to both the company and the community.

"We will convert our approach into significant returns for our shareholders," he said.

"We're in a fortuitous position to capitalise on the unique dynamics of the Asia-Pacific nickel laterite market. We will be the only wet tropical nickel laterite miner on the ASX.

"We're in a unique position - we have a world-class deposit that will be in production within 12 months."

*A version of this report, first published in the March 2015 edition of RESOURCESTOCKS magazine, was commissioned by Axiom Mining.