hero. For the next thirty years, the consensus in the West was that the Cuban plant, which relied on Soviet replacement parts, was a dud. It wasn’t until 1994 that Canadian company Sherritt International, a specialist in HPAL, was able to invest in Moa Bay and begin to modernise the plant.
In 1994, Andrew Forrest was also launching his sales pitch for his $1-billionplan to build the world’s first HPAL plant outside Cuba. Forrest’s message might have baffled a few investors, but it went something like this: Anaconda will build a nickel mine; the ore from the mine will be crushed and fed into a colossal processing plant; it will then be mixed with sulphuric acid at temperatures of up to 250 degrees Celsius at high pressure inside four huge boilers known asautoclaves; the nickel and cobalt will then be leached out; and the end result will be small, pillow-shaped briquettes that will pop out the other end of the plant. The high-grade nickel and cobalt would then be shipped around the world to make stainless steel, jet engines, batteries and other necessities of modern life.
Besides his promotional zeal, Forrest brought to Anaconda a strong financialawareness and a vision for the bigger picture. He understood that the world was running out of traditional sulphide ores, but also that the future industrialisation of Asia meant nickel would always be in demand. And he came to believe that the desert sands around Murrin Murrin contained a bounty of nickel laterites for anyone prepared to explore there. Forrest also realised that one of themost important assets for an energy-guzzling nickel plant was access to cheap gas. And he knew that Richard Court’s newly elected Liberal government in Western Australia was promising to build a gas pipeline from the north-west of the state to supply the mining operations of the Goldfields. The pipeline arrived in the Goldfields in 1996 just as Anaconda was preparing to start construction.
Forrest’s earliest backer at Anaconda was Rodney Adler, who by the early 1990s was a major figure in Australian business. Forrest met Adler one day to tell him about the nickel tenements in the Goldfields and the gas pipeline. Adler recalls: “He came to me and said, ‘Rod, I have the greatest idea I’ve ever come up with – I want to be a nickel producer. The pipeline will come through, we’ll raisesome money and we’ll start an operation. I’m telling you, it’s going to be one of the best things we ever do.’” Adler was sold on the idea and put some money in on behalf of FAI. He would eventually invest $4 million and end up with a profit of $65 million. The FAI stake would also provide Forrest with a crucial partner in later years as he battled other shareholders for control of Anaconda.
Anaconda had plenty of sceptics in the early days. Many believed that the ore body at Murrin Murrin wasn’t good enough and the extraction technology too complex and unproved. Others said a glib ex-stockbroker with no real mining industry experience would never be able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from serious investors. The nickel industry in the 1990s was dominated in WesternAustralia by Western Mining Corporation, whose chief executive, Hugh Morgan, was the embodiment of the conservative business establishment. WMC, which had banked its future on traditional sulphide deposits, let it be known that it doubted whether Forrest could make Murrin Murrin work. As he would do again several years later in the iron ore industry, Forrest cast himself in the role of underdog againstthe might of the established nickel players.
The history of nickel laterite projects, both in Australia and overseas, has long been a chequered one. Although the Greenvale operation in Queensland had been a success since the 1970s, two other projects launched in Western Australia in the 1990s, Cawse and Bulong, were big disappointments. In 2009, even the world’s biggest mining company, BHPBilliton, couldn’t make money
In 1994, Andrew Forrest was also launching his sales pitch for his $1-billionplan to build the world’s first HPAL plant outside Cuba. Forrest’s message might have baffled a few investors, but it went something like this: Anaconda will build a nickel mine; the ore from the mine will be crushed and fed into a colossal processing plant; it will then be mixed with sulphuric acid at temperatures of up to 250 degrees Celsius at high pressure inside four huge boilers known asautoclaves; the nickel and cobalt will then be leached out; and the end result will be small, pillow-shaped briquettes that will pop out the other end of the plant. The high-grade nickel and cobalt would then be shipped around the world to make stainless steel, jet engines, batteries and other necessities of modern life.
Besides his promotional zeal, Forrest brought to Anaconda a strong financialawareness and a vision for the bigger picture. He understood that the world was running out of traditional sulphide ores, but also that the future industrialisation of Asia meant nickel would always be in demand. And he came to believe that the desert sands around Murrin Murrin contained a bounty of nickel laterites for anyone prepared to explore there. Forrest also realised that one of themost important assets for an energy-guzzling nickel plant was access to cheap gas. And he knew that Richard Court’s newly elected Liberal government in Western Australia was promising to build a gas pipeline from the north-west of the state to supply the mining operations of the Goldfields. The pipeline arrived in the Goldfields in 1996 just as Anaconda was preparing to start construction.
Forrest’s earliest backer at Anaconda was Rodney Adler, who by the early 1990s was a major figure in Australian business. Forrest met Adler one day to tell him about the nickel tenements in the Goldfields and the gas pipeline. Adler recalls: “He came to me and said, ‘Rod, I have the greatest idea I’ve ever come up with – I want to be a nickel producer. The pipeline will come through, we’ll raisesome money and we’ll start an operation. I’m telling you, it’s going to be one of the best things we ever do.’” Adler was sold on the idea and put some money in on behalf of FAI. He would eventually invest $4 million and end up with a profit of $65 million. The FAI stake would also provide Forrest with a crucial partner in later years as he battled other shareholders for control of Anaconda.
Anaconda had plenty of sceptics in the early days. Many believed that the ore body at Murrin Murrin wasn’t good enough and the extraction technology too complex and unproved. Others said a glib ex-stockbroker with no real mining industry experience would never be able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from serious investors. The nickel industry in the 1990s was dominated in WesternAustralia by Western Mining Corporation, whose chief executive, Hugh Morgan, was the embodiment of the conservative business establishment. WMC, which had banked its future on traditional sulphide deposits, let it be known that it doubted whether Forrest could make Murrin Murrin work. As he would do again several years later in the iron ore industry, Forrest cast himself in the role of underdog againstthe might of the established nickel players.
The history of nickel laterite projects, both in Australia and overseas, has long been a chequered one. Although the Greenvale operation in Queensland had been a success since the 1970s, two other projects launched in Western Australia in the 1990s, Cawse and Bulong, were big disappointments. In 2009, even the world’s biggest mining company, BHPBilliton, couldn’t make money
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