According to recent reports, the private mining company Atlantic Nickel has issued a plan to start an underground nickel sulfide mine project in northeastern Brazil from 2026 at a capital cost of 335 million US dollars.
The company is owned by the British private equity fund Appian Capital Advistory, which issued a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Santa Rita nickel-copper-cobalt mine (one of the world's largest open-pit nickel sulfide mines).
Since Atlantic Nickel restarted open-pit mining at the mine in August 2019, it has produced 48,000 tons of nickel concentrate. The mining plan of the open-pit mine lasts for eight years, after which it will transition to underground mining operations, extending the life of the mine to 34 years.
PEA estimates that in the past eight years, the annual output of open-pit mines was 20,000 to 25,000 tons of nickel equivalent, while underground operations will produce 40,000 to 45,000 tons of nickel equivalent each year.
The head of the Appian financial team said that because the nickel grade in the mine increases with the depth, the nickel grade almost doubles, so PEA not only outlines the extension of mine life, but also increases the production of nickel due to the increase in grade.
The company plans to start a pre-feasibility study on the project next year.
