TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Diversified Canadian miner Sherritt International has advised that finished nickel output at its Ambatovy project, near Moramanga, Madagascar, was lower than expected owing to a plant shutdown in late February following a hydrogen sulphide gas release and a recent strike.
For March, finished nickel output was 1 231 t, or 3 078 t on a 100% basis, which was about 60% of the operation’s nameplate capacity, while finished cobalt output was 86 t, or 215 t on a 100% basis.
Ore throughput in the pressure acid leach circuit was 344 007 t, or about 69% of total capacity.
Sherritt on Monday noted that the strike had been resolved and that the Toamasina plant continued to produce at a reduced rate during this period.
The company, which held a 40% interest in the Ambatovy joint venture (JV), confirmed that March output did not change its finished nickel production guidance for Ambatovy of 47 000 t to 52 000 t this year, on a 100% basis.
Sherritt last month announced that Ambatovy had successfully reached an output rate of 54 000 t/y of nickel, or about 90% of the project’s nameplate capacity, measured over 90 days in a 100-day continuous period. Pending independent verification, the output level represented a significant production milestone, after securing the sixth – and one of the most critical – of ten certificates under the terms of the project’s financing agreement.
The Ambatovy JV is a vertically integrated nickel and cobalt mining, processing, refining and marketing JV between subsidiaries of Sherritt, Sumitomo (27.5%), Korea Resources (27.5%) and SNC-Lavalin (5%). Sherritt is the operator of the facilities.