PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Nickel Mines has completed the acquisition of an initial 10% interest in the Oracle nickel project, currently under construction within the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Nickel Mines in December inked a definitive agreement with partner Shanghai Decent Investment to acquire a 70% equity interest in the Oracle nickel project for $525-million, comprising $371-million of acquisition funding and $154-million of shareholder loans.
The ASX-listed company subsequently launched a $225-million capital raise to fund the acquisition of an initial 30% stake in Oracle.
The company on Friday said that this initial interest in Oracle had been secured through the payment of $23-million to its collaboration partner Shanghai Decent, which in addition to a previously paid deposit of $30-million, satisfies the required $53-million for the company to secure a 10% interest in the project.
A further $258.2-million in funding will be required by the end of December this year to fund the third acquisition payment, to acquire a further 40% interest in the Oracle project for $212-million, as well as to fund the second shareholder loan of A$46.2-million.
The Oracle development project comprises four rotary kiln electric furnace lines that have commenced construction within the Indonesia Morowali industrial Park, and will have an annual nameplate capacity of 36 000 t/y of contained nickel in nickel pig iron.