In 2013, Toronto-based Royal Nickel signed an alliance with China’s Tsingshan Holding Group. Both companies had plans to build the world’s first integrated nickel pig iron plant.
Now in the process of being built, the new facility will use nickel sulphide concentrate to make stainless steel. This is an important innovation that will offer lower costs than traditional smelting and refining along with greater flexibility for customers.
Royal Nickel is expecting the plant to use concentrate from its Dumont nickel project 25km west of Amos in the Province of Quebec. The mill and mine are to be commissioned during the first half of 2016. The Dumont is one of the world’s largest undeveloped nickel sulphide deposits. Studies show that it holds a proven and probable reserve of 1.18 billion tons at 0.27 percent Ni and a measured and indicated resource of 372 million tons at 0.28 percent.