Madagascar to become a major cobalt, nickel exporter

Canadian and South Korean mining investors are expected to invest about $5.5 billion into mining of cobalt in Madgascar.

The Amabatovy mining project has ore deposits expected to last 30 years. It is expected to export an annual average of 60,000 tonnes of nickel and 5,600 tonnes of cobalt, all refined to 99.8 per cent. The refining will be done entirely in Madagascar.

"For transparency purposes, I’d like to announce that the company gave us $25 million that we will invest in social actions, infrastructure, health, education and agriculture,” President Rajoelina said.

The mining project has set aside a further $50 million as a guarantee in order to deal with any ecological issues related to the extraction, the Madagascar leader added.

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