NICKEL: Sherritt hits its stride at Ambatovy

MADAGASCAR – Sherritt International Corp. of Toronto says its has reached commercial production at the Ambatovy nickel operations. Located, 80 km east of Antananarivo, the project is a joint venture of Sherritt (40% and operator), Korea Resources (27.5%), Sumitomo Corp. (27.5%) and SNC-Lavalin (5%).

Ambatovy produced its first finished nickel and cobalt in Q3 2012. It produced 5,695 tonnes of finished nickel and 493 tonnes of finished cobalt.

The project includes an open pit and an ore preparation plant at the mine site. Concentrated laterite ore is delivered by pipeline the process plant and refinery on the east coast. The project has an annual design capacity of 60,000 tonnes of nickel and 5,600 tonnes of cobalt with a mine life of 29 years. It is expected to be the world's largest nickel and cobalt producer from laterite ores.

Further information is available at Ambatovy.com.