Mirabela Nickel Limited said that mining at its Santa Rita nickel mine in Brazil will start in the next few weeks and construction will finish in late September 2009.

Separately, the company announced a capital raising to cover a total of USD 44.5 million of additional expenses, including a 6% cost overrun at the USD 440 million Santa Rita project.

Santa Rita commissioning was originally scheduled for July 2009. The project is the largest Greenfield nickel sulfide discovery in the world in the last 10 years.

(Sourced from Dow Jones Newswires)