History

São Miguel Paulista was constructed and operated by Votorantim, the leading Brazilian industrial conglomerate, in 1981 to process nickel carbonate from its Niquelandia nickel mine in the state of Goiás.

Over its 35 years of industry-leading operation, the refinery was enhanced to enable processing of different types of nickel and cobalt material, including imported material.

Originally designed by Outokumpu (now Metso Outotec), the refinery underwent several stages of debottlenecking and expansion up to its final capacity of 25,000 metric tonnes nickel metal each year and 2,000 metric tonnes of cobalt metal each year.

São Miguel Paulista produced electrolytic nickel with 99.9% purity, exceeding the base specification required by the London Metal Exchange (LME), which was historically used in premium applications such as superalloys, speciality stainless steels, electroplating and batteries. SMP produced broken cobalt cathodes which were also of high quality and historically used in superalloys, batteries, animal feed, magnets, and chemicals. The cathodes were sold under the established nickel and cobalt metal brand, “Tocantins” with an extensive distribution network across the United States, Europe and Japan.