Environmental Assessment
Volume A-3
Introduction
Project Description and Area
3
PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND AREA
The project is located in Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island, which is
located in the Indian Ocean about 400 km off the eastern coast of southern
Africa.
The mine site is located in the central highlands near Moramanga. By road, the
mine is about 150 km from the capital city, Antananarivo, and about 275 km
from the country’s main port and second largest city, Toamasina (Figure 3-1).
The elevation at the mine site is about 1,000 m, about 600 m lower than
Antananarivo. The main highway and rail line in Madagascar run from
Antananarivo to Toamasina, passing through Moramanga and then following a
downward slope to the coast.
The processing plant will be built near Toamasina, which will facilitate the
import of bulk materials, such as sulphur, coal and limestone. The ore will be
transported from the mine site to the process plant in a slurry pipeline. The
components of the Ambatovy Project (the project) cover a variety of areas and
include the following.
•
The development of two separate ore bodies, Ambatovy and Analamay,
near Moramanga, through open-cut progressive mining and reclamation.
The mines will produce the ore for an ore processing plant at the mine
site, and this plant will prepare the ore slurry feedstock.
•
A slurry pipeline about 195 km long to transport the ore slurry from the
mine site to the process plant near Toamasina.
•
The process plant will use pressure acid leaching, and while the
February 2005 Feasibility Study contemplates a metal refinery to
produce cobalt and nickel, the current joint venture will develop the
refinery at an offshore location. A feasibility study update will be done,
with no refinery at the Toamasina site of the pressure acid leach plant,
and a nickel-cobalt refinery outside of Madagascar. The Madagascar
facility will include a power and steam plant, water treatment, acid
plants, a hydrogen sulphide plant, a hydrogen plant, an air separation
plant and a limestone and lime processing plant.
•
The tailings pond will be located in valleys south and west of
Toamasina, this area will be used and reclaimed progressively and will
contain all of the tailings solids generated.
•
The expansion of the existing port in Toamasina will accommodate raw
material and product movement in and out of Madagascar. Railcars will
be used to move the bulk products from the port to the process plant.
Ambatovy Project
7
January 2006
