Horizonte Minerals talks outcome for Araguaia nickel project in Brazil

PUBLISHED: Feb 03 2015 @ 15:15 | Comments (0) |

POSITIVE PUBLIC HEARING OUTCOME FOR THE ARAGUAIA NICKEL PROJECT, BRAZIL

Horizonte Minerals, (LSE:HZM) (TSX:HZM) the nickel development company focused in Brazil, has released fresh detial from the outcome from its Public Hearing held on the 30 January 2015 for its 100% owned Araguaia nickel project in Para State, north central Brazil.

Highlights:

· Public Hearing meeting attended by +1,000 people with positive support from local community and government authorities for the extraction and processing of nickel at Araguaia
· Social and Environmental Impact Assessment presented to attendees in partnership with the Department of Environment and Sustainability (SEMAS) following delivery of the SEIA to Brazilian authorities in Q3 2014
· Progressive socio-economic development programmes outlined for local region aimed to bring net positive benefits for local stakeholders

Horizonte CEO Jeremy Martin said, “The positive outcome at the Public Hearing is a major milestone towards receiving our Preliminary Licence (LP) and the culmination of the past 18 month’s social and environmental work. We were pleased by the high turnout at the meeting and the overriding support at the local and state level is a key factor for the future success of Araguaia. We are now in a strong position to advance Araguaia through the feasibility stage in 2015 and are committed to sustainability and ensuring that our local stakeholders will share in the benefits of bringing this project to production.”

The Public Hearing was held on 30 January 2015 in the town of Conceição do Araguaia where the Company has its operational base, which is approximately 35 kilometres from the Project. The meeting was well attended with over 1,000 participants from the local community along with a number of Senior State level officials. These included the Vice-Governor of the Pará State, José da Cruz Marinho, the Environment and Sustainability Minister of the Pará State, Luiz Fernandes Rocha, and the Mayor of Conceiçãodo Araguaia, Valter Rodrigues Peixoto, amongst others.

The Public Hearing is a key part of the Brazilian environmental license process, necessary to obtain the Preliminary License (LP). The aim of the event was to inform, clarify and encourage further community participation in project planning for the Municipal of Conceição do Araguaia where mining and mineral processing will occur.

The Araguaia Project is planned as a long life operation creating approximately 450 direct jobs in the operational phase of the mine. The Company seeks to be a partner-of-choice with the local community in the development of the Project to ensure long-term sustainable benefits are received by local stakeholders. Key socio-economic programmes planned for the region include initiatives for public health, environmental education, local government capacity building and economic development. The economic development programme will focus on maximising local employment as well as the development of local suppliers and small regional enterprises.

As part of the permitting process, the Company has consulted with a large portion of the local community and other stakeholders in the past three months to ensure the Araguaia Project will have a net positive impact on the local communities delivering sustainable value over the long term. Engagement and consultation was undertaken with local community leaders, elected local government ministers and elected state government ministers amongst other stakeholders to develop positive relationships with Horizonte as the Project progresses to the feasibility stage.

The Social and Environmental Impact Assessment of the area aims to identify, predict, interpret and inform society of the potential effects of activities on the health and well-being of the population as well as on ecosystems, so that the results are presented adequately to the public and environmental authorities, and then duly considered. To assess these impacts, Horizonte, in partnership with specialist environment and social consultants undertook environmental and social baseline data collections. The environmental baseline programme included information on climate, particulate matter, groundwater composition and depth, soils, surface water composition and flow, spring locations, and fauna and flora. The social baseline data collection programme included information on regional demographics, stakeholders, livelihoods, community infrastructure, cultural heritage, natural resource use, labour and working conditions, vulnerable groups, land rights, regional medical and emergency services, public safety, traffic volume and archaeological sites.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR FREE ON ADVFN, the world's leading stocks and shares information website, provides the private investor with all the latest high-tech trading tools and includes live price data streaming, stock quotes and the option to access 'Level 2' data on all of the world's key exchanges (LSE, NYSE, NASDAQ, Euronext etc).

This area of the ADVFN.com site is for independent financial commentary. These blogs are provided by independent authors via a common carrier platform and do not represent the opinions of ADVFN Ltd. ADVFN Ltd does not monitor, approve, endorse or exert editorial control over these articles and does not therefore accept responsibility for or make any warranties in connection with or recommend that you or any third party rely on such information. The information available at ADVFN.com is for your general information and use and is not intended to address your particular requirements. In particular, the information does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation by ADVFN.COM and is not intended to be relied upon by users in making (or refraining from making) any investment decisions. Authors may or may not have positions in stocks that they are discussing but it should be considered very likely that their opinions are aligned with their trading and that they hold positions in companies, forex, commodities and other instruments they discuss.