Platinum Group sees completion  of P1.9-B expansion proj this year

Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC), through its wholly-owned subsidiary MCCI Corp., expects to complete the P1.9-billion expansion of its ferronickel plant this year.

PGMC will operate three integrated ferronickel smelter plants in the country by the end of the year with the completion of the expansion and rehabilitation program.

Company chairman Ramon Atayde said they are currently putting up the furnaces and kilns in its three plants: the Manticao plant in Misamis Oriental, the MCCI-Iligan ferronickel smelter plant in Lanao del Norte and the Danao plant in Cebu.

The Iligan ferronickel smelter facility, the country’s first, was formerly a calcium carbide plant of Maria Cristina Chemicals Inc. (MCCI). PGMC acquired 93 percent ownership of the plant from MCCI in October 2007.

It has been converted into a ferronickel processing facility that exports nickel to Australia. PGMC expects to complete the rehabilitation of its second furnace by December so it can fully operate as an integrated ferronickel plant.

In the meantime, BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company and long-time partner of PGMC, will be sourcing a portion of its nickel requirements from the MCCI-Iligan facility. The two companies have a two-year supply contract for 200 tons contained nickel per month.

Moreover, BHP Billiton is providing technical service support for process and facilities engineering in the Iligan plant in addition to technical assistance for preemptive environmental safety nets starting this year.

For the Manticao plant, PGMC expects its furnace to operate later this year so it can also function as an integrated ferronickel smelter plant. It is being rehabilitated and converted from a former ferrochrome plant owned by Inchrome.

The planned ferronickel smelting facility in Danao City will also be completed by the end of the year. This used to be an idle cement factory of Lafarge/Lloyds Richfield Industrial Corp. and is now being rehabilitated and converted for ferronickel operations.

Last year, PGMC acquired the cement plant from Lafarge which included three rotary kilns. The ferronickel smelter is scheduled for soft opening in the next two months.

The company intends to spend around P200 million for the initial rehabilitation and conversion that will have an annual production capacity of 26,000 metric tons of ferronickel.

PGMC was granted an offshore credit facility by Deutsche Bank AG worth $40 million to finance the expansion plans of its ferronickel smelters.

The smelter projects are designed to treat nickeliferous ores from the PGMC mines through kiln drying and calcining processes to produce calcined nickel ore. The calcined ore will undergo smelting in electric arc furnaces that would result in molten crude ferronickel.

Calcining or calcination is a thermal treatment process applied to ores that would result in thermal decomposition. It is carried out in furnaces or kilns and takes place at temperatures below the melting point of the product materials.

PGMC has nickel ore mining activities in the provinces of Surigao del Norte and Isabela.