Aim- and TSX-listed nickel project developer Horizonte Minerals has entered into two long-term port agreements, securing access for the import of required raw materials and the export of final ferronickel product, for its 100%-owned Araguaia nickel project, in Brazil.
The contracts have been awarded to Grupo Atlantica Matapi and Santos Brasil Tecon Vila do Conde, both established operators in the Port of Vila do Conde in Pará state.
Construction is under way at Araguaia and first production remains on track for the first quarter of 2024.
These five-year contracts, with an option to extend for a further five years, are in line with Horizonte’s feasibility costs, once adjusted for the foreign exchange rate, and represent another key derisking milestone for the project.
As well as being the closest port to Araguaia, Vila do Conde also provides bonded warehouse services, laydown areas, and loading and storage facilities in line with Horizonte’s operational requirements.
Further, by securing the same port for both contracts, synergies exist through back haulage of consumables and ferronickel product enabling for both the inward and outward journeys to be used, increasing cost savings.
“As we move closer to our first debt drawdown, these port contracts are a key condition to accessing the debt facility, another example of the progress we are making in terms of derisking the project,” says Horizonte CEO Jeremy Martin.
With every new partnership the company enters into, he says, Horizonte takes a step closer to unlocking the full potential at Araguaia and, more broadly, across Horizonte’s portfolio, and realising the company’s objective of becoming a low-cost nickel producer.