When Centaur Mining and Exploration produced nickel metal from laterite ore at its Cawse Nickel Project in January 1999, a new era in the nickel industry was heralded in. One of three new laterite projects commissioned that year, new technology and a unique process design has been combined at Cawse to launch what will be amongst the world's cheapest nickel production. However, the road to success has proven to be long and challenging. This paper explores Centaur's approach to the Cawse start-up and discusses a number of issues that have been confronted and overcome.