Venezuela increases the production of nickel at Loma de Niquel

CARACAS (Scrap Monster): Even though this information is a bit patchy, but the International Nickel Study Group, has reported that the country has produced almost about 27,000 tonnes of nickel ore, in the first 10 months of the current year, after the null production of nickel ore by the country in the previous year.

 

Loma de Niquel is the one and only nickel mine in the country. If the mine is utilized at its full potential, the country can contribute about 1 percent of the world nickel production. The giant miner Anglo American had owned 91.4 percent of stake in the mine, when the Venezuelan government under the leadership of the late President Hugo Chavez, cancelled the company’s 13 concessions and also rejected the applicati0on to renovate the three remaining concessions, which forced the company to abandon the operations in the country.

 

In the year 2012, the production at the nickel mine was 8,100 tonnes, and in the year 2013, the production declined to zero. The production of the nickel mine in the year 2011, was 14,000 tonnes. According to the reports from the mine, the production of nickel in the mine, in the beginning of the year, that is in the  month of January, resumed to 200 tonnes per month, and in the month of April, the production hiked to 300 tonnes per month.