A 30% slump in nickel prices this year has piled pressure on small Australian miners, forcing some of them to delay new projects and expansions as they wait for the market to recover.

Poseidon Nickel became the latest miner to succumb when it said on Thursday it would put its Lake Johnston mine on care and maintenance-a sign casualties were mounting amid near record metal stockpiles and weak demand from key consumer China.

Exchange stockpiles of the metal used to make stainless steel nearly doubled in the 18 months to June, pressuring benchmark prices to six-year lows of $10430 per tonne last week, down 32 percent since the start 2015.

Global mining and commodity trader Glencore recently sold a nickel mine inherited through its Xstrata takeover to Australian nickel producer Western Areas.

As of now, low nickel prices have hit valuations for nickel mines.(Source from Mining Weekly )

• [Editor:Juan]