INCO of Canada originally owned the Santa Anita property. According to historical drillings by INCO and VALE do Rio Doce, over a 15 km strike length; this reserve is considered one of the largest untapped reserves of Nickel in the world.
The property offers the potential for 800 million tons of mineralization in 35 square km. Its reserves of Platinum group of metals and scandium are not revealed yet.
The recently established CAN has been conducting business in Guatemala, Cuba and the Dominican Republic over the past 14 years through its wholly owned subsidiaries: Nichromet Guatemala S.A., Rio Nickel S.A., Nichromet Dominica S.A.
The company has managed to acquire major nickel /cobalt bearing deposits throughout Central America.
Central American Nickel president Pierre Gauthier said: "CAN holds the mineral rights to the Rio Negro property, which is estimated by Cominco Resources to contain 25 million tons at 1.6% nickel. CAN continues to negotiate the purchase of more properties in Latin America."
CVMR is the leader in the metal refining and manufacturing of metal powders, super alloys, metal 3D printing feed materials, net shapes and metal parts of high value. This would allow the Joint Venture partners to avoid being at the mercy of the commodity markets and commodity markets’ cyclical price fluctuations.
The products pricing of CVMR’s output are based on the market demand in different segments of the manufacturing and consumer markets. While the commodity prices have nose dived, metal powders, nano-powders, net shapes and super alloy prices keep climbing, and have done so with a steady pace in the past 15 years.
The rate of growth in demand for the CVMR products in the past 10 years has been 7.6% on average. In fact it is much higher for some of the specialty products that CVMR produces.
CVMR plants operate without any pollution of the air, water or soil. This is a major attraction for Latin American countries that have had to struggle with massive pollutions by mining and refining companies in recent years.
The CVMR’s refined products from this operation will be in the form of nickel foams with various porosity, Net Shapes used by the aerospace and defense industries, various nickel, iron and platinum powders used in the manufacture of car parts, 3D printing and injection molds, medical instruments, electronic parts, etc.
CVMR chairman and CEO Kamran Khozan said: "The Joint Venture expects to generate over US $500 million a year after commissioning and ramp up."
The funding for this project was secured through a Consortium of Canadian and US financial institutions. The Joint Venture partners have been able to obtain four major off-take agreements for their final products, three years in advance of commissioning of the refinery.
