Canadian firm shutters Australian nickel plant after acid spill

VANCOUVER—First Quantum Minerals Ltd. has temporarily shut down its Ravensthorpe nickel operation in Western Australia following a “structural failure” in a storage tank caused a spill of sulphuric acid-laden material within a processing plant.

The Vancouver-based mining company says all personnel have been accounted for, no injury has been reported and it doesn’t expect an environmental impact from the spill.

First Quantum says investigations of the cause are under way and there’s no estimate on how long the shutdown will last.

The company says the tank contained acid-leaching nickel in slurry, created during the process for extracting minerals from ore.