TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Pending independent verification, multinational miner Sherritt International has achieved a significant production milestone at its Ambatovy nickel project, in Madagascar, after securing the sixth – and one of the most critical – of ten certificates under the terms of the project’s financing agreement.

TSX-listed Sherritt on Monday announced that Ambatovy had successfully reached an annualised output rate of 54 000 t of nickel, or about 90% of the project’s nameplate capacity, measured over 90 days in a 100-day continuous period.

“This is a significant milestone in the ramp-up at Ambatovy. We have been determined in our pursuit of this goal and achieving this milestone ahead of schedule is a testament to the expertise and talent of the people across our organisation that have contributed to this accomplishment.

“Ambatovy is a long-life asset and an essential part of Sherritt’s strategy as a low-cost nickel producer,” president and CEO David Pathe said.

Under the terms of the Ambatovy financing agreement, Sherritt would need to deliver ten certificates to the lenders to achieve financial completion. The production certificate was one of the most significant certificates, as it related to the production performance of the operations.

Sherritt said it expected to deliver the remaining four certificates, namely efficiency, environmental, financial and legal, as well as other conditions, as they were achieved by September 30. Upon reaching financial completion, the financing would become nonrecourse to the Ambatovy partners.

The Ambatovy Joint Venture (JV) is a vertically integrated nickel and cobalt mining, processing, refining and marketing JV between subsidiaries of Sherritt (40%), Sumitomo (27.5%), Korea Resources (27.5%) and SNC-Lavalin (5%). Sherritt is the operator of the facilities.