Horizonte Minerals Mining Company Has Largest Nickel Investment in the Country With the Araguaia Project and Advances to New Business in Pará

In an Expansion Scenario of Mining in the Country, Miner Horizonte Minerals Establishes Itself as the Largest Company in Relation to Investment in the Nickel Sector with the Araguaia Project and Advances in a New Enterprise in the State of Pará.

For this Tuesday, (07/12), the growth projections for Horizonte Minerals in the nickel mining sector in Brazil are quite optimistic. This is because the miner has the largest investment in this segment, with the Araguaia Project in Conceição do Araguaia, which has already secured resources of approximately US$ 633 million, and intends to install a new enterprise in the state of Pará, the Vermelho Project, in the coming years.

Araguaia Project is the Largest Investment in Nickel Mining in the Country and Miner Horizonte Araguaia Aims to Expand Presence in the Sector

Headquartered in the city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, miner Horizonte Minerals has the largest nickel enterprise in Brazil in terms of applied investment. This is the Araguaia Project, which already has investments of US$ 633 million and is located in the state of Pará. The project is the most advanced within the company and is already 100% licensed, with construction expected to begin later this year. 

Thus, the completion of the project is scheduled for the year 2024, so that Horizonte Minerals can undergo 12 months in the ramp-up process, that is, production expansion, and then reach maximum capacity in the year 2025. Additionally, the miner’s expectation is that production will be around 14,500 tons of nickel per year in the first phase, with potential expansion to double that amount, primarily focusing on the growth of the stainless steel market. 

To ensure even greater efficiency and safety in nickel exploration processes in the Araguaia Project, Horizonte Minerals intends to make a significant investment in a low-risk processing technology known as rotary kiln and electric furnace (RKEF). With the start of nickel production in the Araguaia Project, the miner expects to grow significantly in the international mining sector and currently has scalable production projections of approximately 50,000 tons of the mineral per year.

Miner Aims to Expand Presence in the Mining Market in Brazil and Advances with the Vermelho Project for the State of Pará

In addition to the great prominence of Horizonte Minerals in nickel exploration in Brazil, with the Araguaia Project, the company is also studying the installation of a new enterprise in Pará, the Vermelho Project, which is currently in the investment phase of feasibility studies.

The forecast is that there will be an extraction of 141.3 million tons of the mineral reserve to produce 924,000 tons of contained nickel in nickel sulfate, as well as 36,000 tons of contained cobalt and a total of 4.48 million tons of sellable by-products.

For the total production capacity of the ores, the miner expects the Vermelho Project to produce 25,000 tons of nickel and 1,250 tons of cobalt per year. The company’s main focus with this production will be the battery market, as the raw materials are being heavily used in the decarbonization of vehicles in the international transport sector. 

Although currently focused mainly on Pará, the company headquarters remains in Minas Gerais, and the director of Finance at Horizonte Minerals, Tiago Miranda, explained the choice of location: “Most mining companies, with very few exceptions, are in Belo Horizonte. The development of mining and its entire production chain began in Minas Gerais, and here are the engineering companies and many other service providers in the sector.”