TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Strike actions involving a portion of Sherritt International’s workforce at the Ambatovy mine and, subsequently, at the Ambatovy plant, in Madagascar, were hindering the operation’s ramp-up to commercial production.
For April, finished nickel output was 1 244 t, or 3 110 t on a 100% basis, about 63% of nameplate capacity. This was up marginally from 1 231 t, or 3 078 t on a 100% basis, which was about 60% of the operation’s nameplate capacity in March, when production was lower than expected owing to a plant shutdown in late February following a hydrogen sulphide gas release and a recent strike.
Finished cobalt output in April was 50 t, or 126 t on a 100% basis, down 42% quarter-on-quarter.
These figures compared with attributable February finished nickel output of 1 548 t and 118 t of cobalt.
Sherritt explained that the strike action had now been resolved.
Mine-and-plant production continued during the strike at reduced rates and the company undertook opportunistic refinery maintenance. Planned maintenance on the fifth PAL autoclave train was also completed in April.
The Ambatovy joint venture (JV) was 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 was the operator of the facilities.
RESULTS
The company last week reported a first-quarter net loss from continuing operations of C$56.8-million, or C$0.19 a share, compared with C$70.5-million, or C$0.24 a share, a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, the net loss from continuing operations was C$0.24 a share.
Revenue was C$278.3-million for the quarter ended March 31, up from C$250.7-million a year earlier.
Sherritt expected nickel markets to remain under pressure owing to weakened demand from stainless steel mills.