Mirabela Nickel has announced an upgraded open pit resource for its flagship Santa Rita project in Brazil and it believes it has the potential to be the largest nickel project in the world.

The open pit resource was boosted by 45% and now comprises a measured and indicated resource of 130 million tonnes at 0.6% nickel and 0.16% copper for 780,000 tonnes of contained nickel, and an inferred resource of 20 million tonnes at 0.6% nickel and 0.16% copper for an additional 120,000 tonnes of contained nickel.

The new resource is based on 538 holes compared with 378 holes for the previous estimate. The additional 20 million tonnes of inferred resource lies at the base of the open pit and Mirabela said there is potential for further upgrades in the Central Zone. A further 18 holes have been drilled at the project, but results were not included in the latest resource as assays are still pending.

Mr Nick Poll MD of Mirabela said that the upgrade reaffirms Santa Rita as a world class deposit, rivaling the two largest open cut nickel projects in the world.

He added that “Over 900,000 tonnes of contained nickel would make Santa Rita larger than the current Voisey’s Bay open cut project and about 80 per cent the size of the current Mt Keith nickel project. Even including underground operations, there are only a handful of nickel sulphide projects in the world of this size.”

Mirabela said that the project will almost certainly become a million tonne monster following the announcement of the maiden underground resource by November 2008. At this stage, the planned throughput rate of 6.4 million tonnes per annum, to produce 27,000 tonnes per annum of nickel represents a mine life exceeding 20 years.

Construction of the project and associated infrastructure is about 60% complete and the company remains on target to begin production in mid 2009. It is now targeting a 40,000 tonnes per annum production of nickel in concentrate with a mine life of at least 25 years.