Speaking to Business Week from Johannesburg recently, the Project Manager Floyd Botha said construction of the P4 billion refinery is still on schedule. Commissioning of the industrial scale refinery is to be completed in 2009 with the first production targeted for late 2009/2010. First nickel metal production is expected in the third quarter of 2009. BMR last year entered into an agreement with the Construction Industry Trust Fund (CITF) to provide a mobile training centre at the construction site. Botha has said CITF has apparently had funding approved to set up training in the Francistown area and has been allocated a stand in the city for the purpose. "It is reported that the board felt it will suit the community better if it is located in the city as opposed to the Activox site. This has been verbally conveyed to me and is unconfirmed," said Botha. The Activox refinery is a vertically integrated nickel refinery with a higher efficiency that allows for less wastage. In 2006, the Activox and DMS projects were approved. The Activox project is designed to substantially enhance the economics of Tati Nickel with annual nickel production expected to increase to 22,000 tonnes, resulting in a five-fold increase in total nickel production of 236,000 tonnes over the course of the anticipated 11 years life of mine. Norilsk Nickel acquired 85 percent stake in Tati Nickel as a result of the acquisition of LionOre Mining International Ltd. in 2007. The Botswana Government holds 15 percent of Tati Nickel.
The Tati Nickel operation includes Phoenix, which is open pit operation and the Selkirk underground mine, currently on care and maintenance. The Phoenix open pit mine has been mined profitably since 1995, utilising selective mining and dry magnetic separation techniques. The mine utilises an on-site conventional nickel sulphide concentrator, with an upgraded design capacity to process 5 million tonnes of ore per annum.
