* Low nickel price hitting high-cost miners
* Independence CEO says own mine low cost (Adds Independence, Glencore quotes, price forecast)
By James Regan
SYDNEY, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Nickel miners are under mounting pressures to reduce production as falling prices have resulted in about half the global sector losing money, Australia's Independence Group IGO.AX said.
"We are at price levels that are unsustainable in the long term," said Peter Bradford, managing director of Independence, which is expanding its footprint in nickel mining.
"The capacity that will be shutting down will be the higher-cost nickel mine production," he said.
Independence is constructing the Nova nickel mine Australia, with an eye to starting production in December 2016.
The mine's rich ore indicates it will operate on a low-cost basis of around $1.57 per pound - less than half the current price of $3.92 a pound, or $8,660 a tonne CMNI3 - insulating it from much of the weakness underway in the global market, according to Bradford.
"Nova is an extremely robust project that will be able to weather the commodity price cycle," Bradford said.
Half the mine's forecast 26,000-tonnes-a-year nickel-in-concentrate production is under contract to BHP Billiton's BHP.AX BLT.L nearby Nickel West smelting division and half to Glencore Plc GLEN.L
Development of the mine comes amid mounting calls from within the industry for companies to mine less nickel to address a global supply glut and low metals prices.
ANZ this month cut its 2016 nickel price forecast by 15.1 percent to $9,690 per tonne and its 2017 forecast by 10.7 percent to $12,504 per tonne.
Ivan Glasenberg, chief executive of mining and trading group Glencore GLEN.L estimates the figure for nickel companies running at a loss could be even higher at 60 percent.
"We don't understand it, we won't wait for the markets to turn to justify operations," Glasenberg told an investment briefing on Dec 10, according to media reports.
Glencore is the world's fifth-largest producer of nickel metal, with operations in Australia, Canada, Norway, New Caledonia and Dominican Republic. (Editing by Ed Davies)