Nickel bottomed out early in the current year and having recovered since the the sector consensus sees the price strengthening in the coming years. It should coincide with Horizonte bringing its largest new Brazilian mine online.
The new funds spark a 12-month process which will see Horizonte complete a feasibility study for the project, putting it on-track for a start up in late 2019 to 2020.
“We haven’t slowed at all over the past 24 months [which is when the sector slumped] we’ve been flat out and this [funding] just allows us to continue developing the asset,” chief executive Jeremy Martin said in a Proactive Investors interview.
“Our objective is to have this project coming online late 2019 / 2020, right when we [the nickel sector] are moving into increasing nickel prices.
“We’ve been able to keep moving during the downturn, we’re able to acquire the Glencore asset right at the bottom of the market. So I think everything is well positioned for where we see things going.”
Martin also talks about the group’s supportive (and growing) institutional investor base, the value-adding acquisition from Glencore, the economics and timelines to take Araguaia to production, and significantly he gives three key reasons he sees Nickel prices rallying from current levels.