Horizonte Minerals appoints Brazil mining veteran to Araguaia

24th Aug 2023 11:27

(Sharecast News) - Nickel developer Horizonte Minerals announced the latest addition to its executive team on Thursday, with the appointment of Fernando Marino as the operations director of the Araguaia Nickel Project in Brazil.

The AIM-traded firm said Marino was joining the company with an impressive tenure of more than three decades in the resources sector.

It said his expertise primarily lay in effectively starting and managing mining ventures in Brazil, with past accomplishments including pivotal roles at Vale.

Notably, he served as the director of operations at Onça Puma, a ferronickel operation located in Para state, just 250 kilometres away from the Araguaia project.

While at Onça Puma, Marino was said to have been instrumental in managing the initial phase of ramp-up.

In collaboration with Hatch, the furnace vendor for Araguaia, Marino introduced significant enhancements to the original furnace design.

Further cementing his legacy at Onça Puma, Marino spearheaded a thorough reevaluation of the operation's maintenance, safety procedures, and overall functioning, Horizonte said.

That led to a milestone achievement of an annual production record of 25,000 tonnes of nickel, without any reported lost-time accidents.

Before Horizonte, Marino held the position of executive manager at Vale's Base Metals South Atlantic operations.

Additionally, he previously had the responsibility of overseeing the Salobo copper mine and plant.

"We are pleased to welcome Fernando as operations director for the Araguaia Nickel Project, which marks an important milestone for Horizonte as we prepare to bring Araguaia into production given that construction is now around 65% complete," said chief executive officer Jeremy Martin.

"Fernando's extensive experience in commissioning, production ramp-up, and operating Brazilian nickel operations, coupled with over 20 years of stakeholder engagement experience in the Para state, will be invaluable at Araguaia and we look forward to working with him."

At 1040 BST, shares in Horizonte Minerals were down 2.32% at 134.8p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.