HAILEYBURY (miningweekly.com) – The world’s biggest nickel producer, Russia’s Norilsk Nickel, will halt its Tati mine and concentrator in Botswana for 12 days, after a furnace breakdown at the smelter that processes most of the concentrate from the mine.
The company will assess its options during the shutdown, and will place its employees on formal paid leave, the firm said in a statement.
The sharp decline in nickel prices, plus the failure at the smelter, which processes 90% of the concentrate produced at the Tati nickel mine, had prompted the suspension of operations.
Nickel traded above $22/lb in 2007 but has since fallen sharply, to around $4,2/lb, as slowing global economic activity dampens demand for the metal, which is used to make stainless steel.
The mine will close from December 24 to January 5, while Tati “assesses various options to deal with this matter until such time as the BCL smelter has been repaired and is able to accept concentrate feed from Tati once again”, the firm said.
Tati, which is located 40 km east of Francistown, has been conducting underground and opencast mining operations since the mid 1990s ,with ore mainly being trucked to and processed at BCL’s smelter operation.
Norilsk acquired 85% of the Tati mine, which produced some 20 000 t of nickel contained in product over the last 12 months, when it bought Canada’s LionOre Mining last year.
The government of Botswana owns the balance.
Moscow-based Norilsk has operations in Russia, Finland, South Africa, Botswana and Australia, and is a controlling shareholder in US platinum-group metals miner Stillwater Mining.