3 November 2009
SANTA RITA PRODUCES FIRST NICKEL CONCENTRATE
PERTH, AUSTRALIA. Mirabela Nickel Limited (TSX: MNB, ASX: MBN) is pleased to announce the production of first nickel concentrate from the Santa Rita project in Brazil. The commissioning of the crushing, grinding and flotation circuits is progressing well.
Over 119,000 tonnes of ore has been crushed and the mill stockpile contains about 78,000 tonnes. About 42,000 tonnes of ore has been milled. The grinding circuit is operating at up to 550 tonnes per hour.
It is anticipated that Santa Rita production will ramp up substantially over the next three months.
For and on behalf of the Board
Ian Purdy
Chief Executive Officer
Craig Burton
Corporate Director
Background
Mirabela Nickel Ltd owns 100% of the world class Santa Rita nickel sulphide project and is listed on the Australian and Toronto stock exchanges. With a JORC/NI 43.101 Indicated open$B!>(Bcut resource of 130mt grading 0.60% Ni for 780,000t of contained Ni, Santa Rita is the largest nickel sulphide discovery worldwide in over a decade.
Construction of Santa Rita is now complete and commissioning is underway. The operation is expected to ramp-up to the full name-plate capacity of 6.4Mtpa of ore producing 26,000tpa of nickel in concentrate. Current reserves support a mine life of at least 19 years.
Contact details
Australia contact:
Nick Poll, Executive Director
Telephone: +61 8 9324 1177
nickp@mirabela.com.au
Australia contact (media):
Warrick Hazeldine, Purple Communications
Telephone: +61 8 6314 6300
whazeldine@purplecom.com.au
UK and Europe contact
Alex Buck, Buckbias
Telephone: +44 7932 740 452
alex@buckbias.com
Toronto contact (media)
Eric Tang, Porter Novelli
Telephone: +1 416 422 7200
eric.tang@porternovelli.com
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Issued by
Purple Communications
Level 3, 28 Kings Park Road, WEST PERTH WA 6005
Ph: 08 6314 6300 Fax: 08 6314 6355
purple@purplecom.com.au
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