The Ambatovy ore body consists of two large, thick, weathered ultramafic lateritic nickel deposits:
1)The Ambatovy Deposit occurs towards the southern margin of the complex and is approximately 3 kilometres by 2.4 kilometres and oriented in a WNW-ESE direction. A north west trending gabbroic intrusive cuts the Ambatovy Deposit resulting in three sub blocks: Ambatovy West, Central and Southeast.
2)The Analamay Deposit is located at the eastern margin of the complex and is approximately 4 kilometres by 2.8 kilometres, oriented north-south and it also is divided into sub-blocks known as Analamay North, Central and South. Ambatovy West is cut by numerous block faults that strike northwest/southeast with a conjugate set, striking northeast/southwest. Evidence indicates that faulting continued during the laterization.

The Deposits cover an area of about 1,300 ha, and range in thickness from 20 to 100 metres, with the average thickness being approximately 40 metres. Within the lateritic profile, there are three distinct zones:
- Ferricrete is the uppermost layer, and forms an extremely hard, coherent crust of iron oxides up to 3 metres thick and acts as a deterrent to mechanical erosion.
- Limonite, referred to locally as ferralite, constitutes more than 90% of the economic grade nickel mineralization and is predominately a spongy mass with iron concentrations of 40 to 50%, predominately in goethite. Enriched nickel and cobalt grades are largely achieved by depletion of other elements through the weathering process, rather than additions to the system. The nickel grade of the laterite is influenced by the nickel content of the underlying bedrock.
- Saprolite lies at the base of the lateritic zone, on top of the bedrock.

The mining method used by the Ambatovy Joint Venture consists of an excavator/truck operation. Bench mining is executed in opened deposits using hydraulic backhoe excavators equipped with 5.4 cubic metre buckets and a combination of rigid and articulated haulage trucks. The mine operates 365 days per year. Ore is either directly fed to the ore preparation plant, or stockpiled for future processing. As of December 31, 2015, a total of 5.95 million tonnes of material with an average grade of 0.78% Ni and 0.06% Co were in the stockpile.

Ore is processed through the ore preparation plant where it is slurried with water in a rotary drum scrubber and the resultant slurry is screened at <0.8 millimetres to reject partially or un-weathered material with a high magnesium content. The screened oversize material is processed through a second scrubber and screening circuit that achieves high recovery of the limonite contained in the ore. The final reject material is used for road construction or is deposited into mined-out areas. The product ore slurry is thickened and transported down a 600 millimetre diameter pipeline that is approximately 220 kilometres to the processing plant.

The nickel and cobalt recovery process from lateritic ores that has been selected by the Ambatovy Joint Venture uses Sherritt developed technology which is in operation at other facilities.

The processing plant, located near the port of Toamasina, includes a pressure acid leaching plant, a metals refinery, and associated utility and ancillary plants including: water treatment, steam and power, hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide, sulphuric acid, air separation, limestone comminution, and lime-calcining and slaking. Site facilities include a medical clinic, training centres, change-house, canteen, stores, workshops, fuel storage, laboratory, gatehouse and main offices.

At the processing plant, the slurry is thickened and pumped to an acid pressure leaching circuit consisting of horizontal, mechanically-agitated autoclaves. Sulphuric acid is added to the autoclaves to dissolve nickel and cobalt from the slurried ore. The discharged slurry is partially neutralized with limestone and processed through a counter-current decantation wash circuit to separate the nickel and cobalt-containing solution from the leach residue. The leach residue is impounded in a tailings pond, following further neutralization with limestone and lime. In the nickel and cobalt rich solution, any excess sulphuric acid is neutralized with limestone and the resulting gypsum residue is processed through the wash circuit. Nickel and cobalt are recovered from the solution by precipitation, at elevated temperature and pressure, with hydrogen sulphide gas to produce mixed sulphides.

In the refining process, nickel and cobalt present in the mixed sulphide feed are leached in an oxidizing solution in autoclaves at elevated temperature and pressure. From the mixed sulphides, cobalt, nickel and other metals are dissolved and the sulphur is oxidized. Following solution purification, nickel and cobalt are separated by solvent extraction. Nickel is then recovered in powder form, and, after washing and drying, is compacted into briquettes. Cobalt is also recovered in powder form and compacted into briquettes or packaged as powder. The remaining, essentially metal-free, solution is evaporated to crystallized ammonium sulphate which is to be dried and sold as fertilizer. Ammonium sulphate fertilizer, a by-product of this refining process, is produced at an on-site ammonium sulphate plant, which is expected to have an annual output of approximately 210,000 tonnes. Other metals present in the feed, such as copper and zinc, are collected in sulphide residues and sold.