Mining-contractor-turned-miner Dynatec (DY-T) has taken an option to earn a 53% interest in the Ambatovy nickel laterite project in Madagascar from Phelps Dodge (PD-N).
Dynatec, which absorbed the technical metallurgical consulting operations of Sherritt International (S-T) a few years ago, will become operator of the project and will be obliged to spend US$20 million on the property, mainly by financing a feasibility study and providing licences to use its metallurgical technologies. The feasibility study is scheduled to be complete by the middle of next year.
Ambatovy, about 130 km east of the capital, Antananarivo, has a resource of 190 million tonnes grading 1.1% nickel and 0.1% cobalt. It is a flat-lying, near-surface laterite that could be pitted easily, and metallurgical testing has indicated that pressure acid leaching may work as an extraction method.
Metallurgical work to date has found the mineralization offers high leaching rates and low acid consumption. Dynatec plans further testing on the material, at both batch-test and pilot-plant scales.
The current framework for the feasibility study has the deposit producing 50,000 tonnes nickel and 4,000 tonnes cobalt per year for at least 20 years.
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