Mirabela studies smelter option at Santa Rita nickel project

摘要

It would cost Mirabela Nickel (MNB-T, MBN-A) about 254 million US dollars to build a nickel sulphide smelter for its Santa Rita project in Brazil, a scoping study reveals. Operating costs would clock in at roughly 111 US dollars per tonne of concentrate. Mirabela plans to start producing nickel concentrate at Santa Rita in 2009 and now plans to move ahead with a smelter feasibility study. Apart from lowering transportation costs and improving economies of scale, the company says demand for nickel matte, the smelter product, will be even stronger than demand for nickel concentrate, and a smelter would strengthen the company's strategic position in the nickel market.