16 June, 2009
SANTA RITA PROJECT CONSTRUCTION
UPDATE
PERTH, AUSTRALIA. Mirabela Nickel Limited (TSX: MNB, ASX: MBN) is
pleased to announce that substantial progress has been made on the Santa Rita
project since the receipt of funds from the senior debt facility in May.
Most significantly,
the delay in financing has impacted delivery of the SAG and ball mills, so
first concentrate is now expected in September 2009. As a result,
installation of the grinding circuit is now the critical lead-time item. The
mills are on site and installation of the first phase (base plates and alignment)
is well underway.
Good progress has
been made on the rest of the project. ?Dry-run? commissioning is already
completed on many parts of the plant. The tailings dam and prestripping were
completed several months ago and the main substation is expected to be
energised in early July.
Details of the
project status are as follows:
Pre-stripping complete - 170,000t ROM on pad and
additional 800,000t available at strip ratio of about 2:1
The apron feeder and motor for the primary crusher
have been run without load
Main conveyors completed and to be commissioned by end
of June
Reclaim tunnel complete with all 3 apron feeders
tested and run without load.
Conveyors for pebble recycle circuit tested
All flotation tanks and both thickeners are water
tested
LAROX filter is installed.
Blowers are installed
and awaiting commissioning
Reagent tanks and dosing pumps are water tested
Compressed air system commissioned and compressed air
has been distributed throughout the plant.
Raw water supply and storage commissioned
Plant water system commissioned
Main substation almost complete, to be fully commissioned
by early July
All electrical rooms to be fully commissioned by end
of June
Control room complete and ?dry run? commissioning
under way
Tailings dam complete
An initial order of
four Caterpillar 777 trucks (100t) , two D9 tracked bulldozers and a grader are
currently being shipped to Brazil from the United States and are expected to
arrive in early July ready to commence mining by end of July, along with a
front end loader and a wheel dozer. A second delivery of larger
capacity Caterpillar 785 trucks (150t), an additional two 777 trucks, Terex
O&K RH90 and RH120 excavators and more ancillary equipment is expected to
arrive from September 2009 and will bring the mining fleet up to a 4.6mtpa
mining capacity. Other deliveries programmed for 2010 will bring the
project up to a 6.4mtpa mining capacity. Maintenance and training is to
be provided by Marcosa and Sotreq, the Caterpillar dealerships in Brazil.
The mining fleet will be owned and operated by the Company.
An operations
management team is already recruited and will be led by Adriano Espeschit, a
mining engineer and previously General Manager of Mt Keith - the largest
open-cut nickel sulphide mine in the world. Operational preparedness and
personnel training is well underway and is on track for a September start.
For and on
behalf of the Board
Nick
Poll
Craig Burton
Managing
Director
Corporate Director
Background
Mirabela Nickel Ltd
owns 100% of the Santa Rita nickel sulphide project, located in Bahia,
Brazil, and its shares are
listed on the Australian and Toronto
stock exchanges.
Construction of a 6.4 mtpa nickel sulphide concentrator commenced in
November 2007 and is now over 90% complete. The Project is scheduled to
commence production in September 2009. The plant will have a capacity of
26,000tpa of nickel in a sulphide concentrate from one open-cut mine with a
life of at least 19 years.
Photos of the
construction progress are available on the Company website at:
http://www.mirabela.com.au/gallery
Contact details
Australia contact:
Nick Poll, Managing
Director
Craig Burton, Executive Director
Telephone: +61 8
9324
1177
Telephone: +61 8 9324 1177
nickp@mirabela.com.au
Australia contact
(media):
Toronto contact (media):
Warrick Hazeldine, Purple
Communications
Eric Tang, Porter Novelli
Telephone: +61 8
6314 6300
Telephone: +1 (416) 422-7200
whazeldine@purplecom.com.au
eric.tang@porternovelli.com