Horizonte Minerals plc has awarded contracts aimed to increase nickel production by 100% to 29,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) over a 25-year mine life at its Araguaia project in northeast Brazil.
OBJECTIVES
The Line 2 feasibility study (FS) includes construction of a duplicate rotary kiln-electric furnace (RKEF) processing facility aimed to produce an NI 43-101 feasibility report supported by a AACEI Class 3-quality cost estimate, and project execution plan.
Horizonte expects to publish results of the study during the second half of 2023.
The companies – Snowden; Environment Resources Management (ERM); Reta Engineering; Draft Solutions; and Afry Poyry – are all key contributors to the engineering, costing and construction work currently underway on Line 1 at Araguaia.
OPTION
Chief executive Jeremy Martin added that the award of the Line 2 FS was an important step for Araguaia becoming a “scalable, low-cost nickel operation”.
“Line 1 and Line 2 together are designed to produce 29,000 tpa of nickel with the overall resource of 119 million tonnes able to support this scenario with the potential to increase the mine life in the future.
“We are also excited about the potential of having the option to produce nickel matte giving us the ability to participate in different parts of the nickel market.
“We are making solid progress on the construction of Araguaia Line 1, which remains on-budget and on-schedule to produce first nickel in Q1 2024.”
Horizonte is simultaneously preparing the feasibility study for its second project for cobalt-nickel at Vermelho, which it expects to finalise during 2024.