Name of the Project
Araguaia nickel project.

Location
The project is located on the eastern margin of the state of Pará, in north-eastern Brazil, to the north of the town of Conceição do Araguaia.

Client
Horizonte Minerals.

Project Description
Araguaia has proven and probable reserves of 24.6-million tonnes grading 1.77% nickel and comprises the Araguaia nickel project area (HZMA) and the Glencore Araguaia project (GAP) area.

The project is based on a 28-year life-of-mine, producing about 14 500 t/y of nickel in ferronickel from a single-line rotary kiln electric furnace (RKEF) plant.

The prefeasibility study (PFS) has proposed openpit mining for the exploitation of nickel laterite to establish the production of run-of-mine from eight openpits (seven for the HZMA and one for the GAP) to supply a targeted 900 000 t/y of ore to a processing and smelter facility. This facility will use the proven RKEF process, with the product being sold free-on-board at the selected port of export. 

Overall nickel recovery has been estimated at 93%.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a post-tax net present value (NPV), at an 8% discount rate, of $581-million at a nickel price of $14 000/t and an NPV of $328-million at a nickel price of $12 000/t of nickel. 

A post-tax internal rate of return of 26.4% at $14 000/t of nickel and 19.3% at $12 000/t nickel has been estimated. 

Value
Total preproduction capital costs are estimated at $353.5-million.

Duration
Construction is expected to start in 2017.

Latest Developments
Horizonte Minerals is nearing completion of its feasibility study for the Araguaia nickel project and plans to release the final results to the market in October.

“There has been a considerable amount of work involved in the optimisation of the plant layout and design, where we have been able to successfully reduce the overall plant footprint, close-couple the equipment packages leading to a reduction in the overall material quantities (cut-and-fill material, concrete and steelwork). Additionally, we have now designed the plant in such a way to allow the potential to include a second RKEF process line in the future allowing for an increase in the annual nickel production.

“As the various feasibility workstreams are coming together, we have also been working hard on the social, infrastructure and licensing aspects of the project that will allow us to move to the development stage in 2019,” Horizonte CEO Jeremy Martin said.

Further, the company is on track with its programme of licence applications and approvals, as well as with construction permit requests for several key environmental and regulatory parts of the overall project. Horizonte obtained the water permit for full-scale operation of the Araguaia project and submitted the fauna and flora inventories, as well as the vegetation suppression request in early 2018.

In July, a team from the environmental agency, Semas, also visited the Araguaia project, which the company has said is an important step in the process for the approval of the construction licence.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Worley Parsons Group (process engineering); Snowden Mining Industry Consultants (mine planning, mineral resource and the reserve estimate and ERM (hydrogeology and the environmental and social permitting); Steinweg Handelsveem (material transport and logistics), SM&A Electrics (power infrastructure and transmission lines); and VCE Mine Consultancy (mining permit reporting).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Horizonte Minerals, tel + 44 207 763 7157 or email info@horizonteminerals.com.