In August 2018 BHP's Nickel West CEO announced that mining of the Yakanidie deposit would commence in the first half of 2019 pending final approvals. It is planned that ore will be fed through the Mt Keith concentrator and blended with ore from the existing Mt Keith mining operations. With the addition of Yakabindie, BHP has estimated that its Nickel West resource base would increase to 6.2Mt contained nickel, effectively supporting production out to 2040. With the start-up of Yakabindie the company plans to evaluate further upgrades to the Mt Keith concentrator in order to take throughput to 45-50kt/a.