BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes
ZAMBIA’S Munali Nickel mine is expected to be producing 60,000 tonnes of ore per month by July from whose some of its components will be used to make car batteries.
Mabiza Resources and its London-based investor, Consolidated Nickel Mines (CNM), re-launched Munali Nickel Mine’s operations on April 16 following a US$50 million refurbishment of the asset.
According to CNM general manager, Matthew Banda, the mine was currently producing 12,000 tonnes of ore per week which had been stored before being crushed.
“At optimum production we should be doing 15,000 tonnes. So, we’re almost there. We need to consistently deliver 15,000 tonnes a week to give us the necessary 60,000 for the process plant per month. We hope to achieve that by July or August 2019,” said Mr Banda.
Mr Banda said the mine most likely invest in a solvent extraction electro winning method, involving putting up a leach circuit that would facilitate value addition through electro winning.
He said electrowinning involved extracting metals from their ores by putting them into a solution, and then plating that onto another surface.
“Buying certain equipment for these solvent extraction methods would also allow for the production of nickel sulphate. So it’s basically a matter of what gives you a better price,
“At the moment, the market for nickel sulphate looks good because nickel sulphate is what goes into batteries. It is important to remember that different countries are also looking for investment from the same pot of funds,” Mr Banda said.
Vehicle makers like the Toyota Prius, popularized the use of nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries in the 1990s.
