BNC resumes exports

Africa, as part of an off take agreement with Glencore International signed between BNC and the global commodity trader.
“Mwana is pleased to announce that the first shipment of nickel concentrate from Bindura Nickel Corporation’s Trojan Nickel Mine in Zimbabwe was dispatched on the 15th of April 2013. The timing of the shipment is in line with previous guidance given by the company,” said Mwana.

This follows the refurbishment of the surface milling, flotation, tailings and concentrate handling facilities, hot commissioning has been successfully completed and the first shipment of nickel concentrate was trucked from.

As part of the agreement with BNC, Glencore will purchase all of the concentrate produced at the Trojan Mine at a price linked to the London Metal Exchange settlement price.
Mwana said the processing plant is now producing concentrate of saleable quantity and quality and the remainder of the commissioning activities during the year will focus on increasing throughput and improving recoveries.

This shipment of concentrate from the Trojan Mine marks a major milestone in the restoration of the BNC’s nickel assets, following a four-year period of care and maintenance, the Alternative Investment Market-listed firm said.

Mwana Africa Plc group chief executive officer Mr Kalaa Mpinga said having successfully completed the commissioning process at Trojan Mine “we are very happy to be announcing the dispatch of first nickel concentrate”.

“This marks a major milestone in our strategy to bring our (BNC) nickel assets out of care and maintenance and back into production,” Mr Mpinga said.
BNC is owned 52,9 percent by Mwana Africa and is Africa’s only integrated nickel extraction company as it also owns a smelting and refinery plant.
BNC was placed under care and maintenance in 2008 after succumbing to volatile global metal prices and crippling economic challenges in the country at the time.
After dollarisation of the economy and an improved operating economic environment, together with a recovery in the nickel price, BNC management decided the time was right to restart operations at the mine.

The strategy is to phase the restart operations with the first step being Trojan Mine.
But BNC struggled to raise the required funding for the restart until in June last year when Mwana Africa offered to underwrite a US$21 million rights issue.
Mwana Africa, through its subsidiary, Zimnick, invested US$21 million into BNC through this process. Other shareholders invested an additional US$2 million in new cash.
BNC said the US$23 million was sufficient to fund the first year of the Trojan restart, adding that the group would require an additional US$11 million for the second year of the restart. After the mine has restarted, BNC is targeting an annual production of 7 000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate. It will take about three years to reach this level of production.