Modern Mining April 2017

MINING News

Ngualla project receives Environmental Certificate holder consultation, as well as a site visit and a review board meeting with NEMC. Strong support for the development of the Ngualla rare earth project was received at a local village, district, regional and national level during the stakeholder meetings. The project area has no human

habitation, farming, grazing or reserves. The BFS remains on track for com- pletion within the coming weeks. The Environmental Certificate and a Feasibility Study are key documents required for an application for a mining licence, which the company aims to finalise during Q2 2017. 

ASX-listed Peak Resources has received the Environmental Certificate for the Ngualla rare earth project located north of Mbeya in Tanzania. The grant of the Environmental Certi­ ficate by the Minister of State of the Vice President’s Office represents the comple- tion of a major step in the permitting of the project. The Environmental Certificate is a pre-requisite for the granting of a min- ing licence. The Environmental Certificate marks the successful completion of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) report. Environ­ men t a l r egu l a t o r s , t he Na t i ona l Environment Management Council (NEMC), set the guidelines and requirements of the study that is behind the EIS report, which was led by Tanzanian environmental con- sulting specialists Align Environment and Risk and Paulsam Geoengineering Co Ltd. The study included multi-disciplined wet and dry season environmental and social baseline studies and extensive stake-

Orion Gold completes acquisition of Agama ASX-listed Orion Gold reports it has now completed the acquisition of Agama Exploration & Mining (Pty) Ltd, which holds one of the world’s largest historical VMS zinc-copper deposits in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province.

discovery located 60 km from PC. The purchase consideration paid on settlement of the acquisition was R53 mil- lion, of which R31,5 million was paid in cash and R21,5 million was paid by issue of Orion shares. In addition, Orion provided finance for Agama to enable it to settle all historical shareholder loans to an aggregate amount of approximately R33,3 million. With the acquisition now completed, Orion says it has embarked on an intensive growth and development strategy aimed at establishing the company as a significant newplayer in the global basemetal sector. 

Following the completion of this trans- action, Orion, through its subsidiary companies, now holds an effective 73,33 % interest in the company holding prospect- ing rights over the historical Prieska copper mine (PC), located at Copperton in the Northern Cape and the Marydale gold/cop- per project, a volcanogenic gold-copper

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