With the commissioning start Mirabela Nickel (TSX: MNB, ASX: MBN) said the primary crusher was operated for several hours to crush 1,000 tonnes of ore in preparation for the SAG mill scheduled to start up shortly.

Managing director Nick Poll said the operating team was now running the plant on a continuous 24 hour basis since mid September on wet load so as to check systems and ensure a smooth handover from the construction team to the operations team.Maintenance facilities for the mining fleet are expected to be fully operational by end of October.Ramp-up to the full operating capacity of 6.4 Mtpa was anticipated to take about one year with installation of a second ball mill planned for the first half of next year. Foundations and infrastructure for this have already been built.Poll said that at full production, Santa Rita is expected to produce 26,000 tonnes per annum of nickel in concentrate.Santa Rita is in Bahia State and was claimed to be the largest disseminated nickel sulphide deposit in South America and the largest Greenfield discovery in the world over the past decade.