Nickel miner Western Areas has made sure that it will not be left stranded by a commodity price crash, raising $100 million to ensure it can afford the leap from its ageing mines to its future at the Odysseus project.

Short sellers had circled Western Areas in the past six months on signs it may struggle to afford the $243 million construction spend on Odysseus out of cashflow amid increasingly unreliable performance at its ageing Forrestania mines.