Nickel developer Horizonte Minerals has awarded contracts for the Line 2 feasibility study at its Araguaia nickel project, in Brazil, with the aim of publishing the results of the study in the second half of the year.
The principal contractors are Snowden, Environment Resources Management, Reta Engineering, Draft Solutions and Afry Poyry.
Horizonte states that these groups are all key contributors to the engineering, costing and construction work under way on Line 1 at Araguaia and have extensive knowledge of the project.
The Line 2 study is expected to demonstrate a mine life of over 25 years with a production capacity of about 29 000 t/y of nickel at Araguaia. Line 2 will deliver greater production flexibility, lower capital intensity and increased operating margins. As part of the feasibility study, an option will be designed into the flow sheet to allow a portion of the furnace product from Line 2 to be converted to nickel matte allowing Araguaia not only to produce high-grade low impurity ferronickel, but also matte that can be upgraded to feed directly into the electric vehicle battery chemistry supply chain.
The Araguaia plant has been designed and optimised to allow for the build-out of Line 2 with key fixed infrastructure sized to support both lines, reducing the overall cost of developing Line 2.
“Line 1 and Line 2 together are designed to produce 29 000 t/y of nickel, with the overall resource of 119-million tonnes able to support this scenario, with the potential to increase the mine life in the future. We are also excited about the potential of having the option to produce nickel matte giving us the ability to participate in different parts of the nickel market,” comments Horizonte CEO Jeremy Martin.
He adds that construction of Araguaia Line 1 remains on-budget and on-schedule to produce first nickel in the first quarter of next year.
At the same time, Horizonte is preparing for its next growth phase with Vermelho's feasibility study expected to be finalised in 2024.