Selebi Phikwe Closed nickel operation

After making losses for a number of years, the Botswanan government finally decided that it would not continue to fund ongoing operations at BCL and as a consequence production ceased in October 2016. It is understood that BCL's liquidators will decide whether to try and sell the assets and pay off creditors or potentially return to production with a scaled back operation. The impact of the closure is the loss of around 20kt nickel in matte, although production had been below this level more recently. BCL's matte was sold primarily to Glencore for refining at Kristiansand, with smaller volumes going to Norilsk’s Harjavalta refinery and, historically, RioZim’s Empress plant (although shipments to Empress ceased in 2015 and the refinery is currently on care and maintenance).