ORALS

Falconbridge Dominicana (Falcondo) has a long operating history since 1955 and in August 2015 Americano Nickel Ltd acquired the company from Swiss miner Glencore. After two interruptions to operations in the periods 2008-2011 and 2013-2016, the company resumed production in April 2016 under new management. With a total installed Ni capacity of 32000 t annually, it makes Falcondo one of the 10 biggest producers worldwide. The main difficulties that were required to confront were: market conditions, loss of customers after the period of care and maintenance, and an atmosphere of uncertainty and mistrust within the country. Falcondo managed to overcome the difficulties taking initiatives to increase profitability, through the introduction of new and more effective methodologies and technologies, both in the mining operation and in the operation of the plant, reducing also the environmental impact. Falcondo won the price of the biggest exporter in the Dominican Republic for 2019 and in that way the country takes a position between the biggest exporters of Ferronickel together with China, Finland, the United States, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, and India. In this paper, factors that made Falcondo a successful sustainable producer of Fe-Ni in terms of economic growth, environmental protection and social development along with the description of the process and technological improvements