Santa Rita underground portal first blast: design and schedule notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Atlantic Nickel and Appian Capital Advisory have fired the inaugural blast for the first underground access portal at the Santa Rita nickel mine in Bahia, Brazil, marking the physical start of the open-pit to underground transition. Portal and associated preliminary works are progressing in parallel with completion of the underground Definitive Feasibility Study, allowing mine design, scheduling and ground support assumptions to be validated against actual rock conditions. For geotechnical and planning teams, this sequencing reduces schedule risk and enables earlier refinement of underground development and ventilation layouts.
Technical Brief
- Initial blast establishes the first underground access portal for Santa Rita’s sub-surface mine infrastructure.
- Underground works are classed as “preliminary”, enabling early establishment of services, ground support and logistics.
- Portal development is being advanced before full underground production capex is committed.
- Parallel DFS and field works allow early calibration of cost, schedule and geotechnical design inputs.
- For similar open-pit-to-underground assets, this sequencing reduces idle time between final pit and first stopes.
Our Take
Nickel items in our database increasingly centre on long-life sulphide assets, so underground development at the Santa Rita mine in Bahia positions Atlantic Nickel to stay relevant as laterite-heavy supply faces higher processing costs.
Brazil appears only sporadically in our 1161 Mining stories, which suggests Santa Rita’s underground phase could become a reference case for permitting and operating larger-scale base metal underground expansions in the country.
With Appian Capital Advisory Ltd backing Atlantic Nickel, Santa Rita’s move underground fits a pattern in our coverage where private-equity-owned nickel operations are pushed to unlock deeper resources rather than rely solely on open-pit extensions.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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