World number one nickel and palladium producer, and Russia’s largest diversified mining company, MMC Norilsk Nickel, has reported that it will complete airborne geophysical surveying and surface geochemical prospecting in the Tekwane area of Botswana during the first quarter of 2012. The exploration zone is in the eastern part of the Tekwane area and adjacent to Norilsk’s Tati Nickel subsidiary. The Russian group owns 85% of this operation, while the remaining 15% is held by the Botswana government.

Tati Nickel comprises the Phoenix openpit and the Selkirk underground mine. Selkirk is, however, not operational, being in a state of care and maintenance. It is going to be converted into an openpit operation, and equipped with a dense-media separation plant (DMS) and a concentrator. (Phoenix already has a DMS plant.) These developments are currently in the preparation stage.

The Botswana government awarded the three-year exploration licence in February last year and the company then launched an intensive exploration programme. So far, Tati has carried out reverse-circulation drilling on the northern side of the Phoenix deposit and has created models of the Phoenix and Selkirk orebodies. The airborne geophysical and ground geochemical surveys now under way are intended to locate the most promising nickel mineralisation occurrences within the exploration area.

Currently, Phoenix has proven reserves of 124.4-million tons of ore, with a nickel grade of 0.21%, amounting to 245 600 t of nickel. Norilsk points out that Tati is the only operation in the world to produce nickel concentrate from low-grade ores with a metal content as little as 0.1%. This is achieved, Norilsk says, using “a new production flow sheet involving [the] DMS plant”.

Norilsk’s other operation in Southern Africa – in Africa, in fact – is Nkomati Nickel, in South Africa, which is a 50:50 joint venture with South African miner African Rainbow Minerals. To date, Norilsk has invested $200-million in Nkomati.

The Russian group expects Nkomati’s nickel output this year to be 58% higher than last year’s. This is because Nkomati’s nickel and chrome ore processing plant reached full capacity last year and will run at full capacity all this year. Norilsk reports that the South African mine has proven reserves of 159-million tons of ore, containing more than 500 000 t of nickel, 200 000 t of copper and 150 t of platinum-group metals (PGMs).

Last week, Norilsk director of international production assets Roman Panov told the Reuters new agency that his group was interested in PGM acquisitions in South Africa. “There are some potential projects here,” he said in Cape Town, indicating that Norilsk was carrying out due diligence “of some projects in South Africa for maybe a prospective acquisition deal here”. “We hope that the deals can be for 2012 or 2013. It is too early to make an announcement right now, but we are extensively working this market. It is different companies in the PGM group, but primarily platinum. “His group was looking at both greenfield and brownfield projects with a focus on the quality and quantity of the reserves involved.

He reported that Norilsk’s aim was to be one of the world’s top three PGM producers within ten years. Moreover, Norilsk is also interested in projects in African countries other than Botswana and South Africa. Panov listed the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe as also being “potential regions for further development”.

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