Atlantic Nickel recently conducted a preliminary economic assessment and intends to double the nickel sulphide concentrate capacity from 16.5ktpa at its Santa Rita mine in Brazil.
The mine will need to invest close to $355mn over the first five years of the project and expects to grow from eight to 34 years through an underground mine operation slated to begin in 2028.
Last week marked the company’s first year of operations at Bahia, and it’s so far exported 57,000mt of nickel concentrates and created around 1,500 manufacturing jobs in the region. The company has so far invested close to $207,000 into the mine’s operations and boosted the local economy, it said in a statement.