Modern Mining April 2018

COPPER

were low because of the nature of the mate- rial but there were no mining costs. Mining recommenced in September, starting with pre- stripping, and ore was intersected, as expected, in early November last year. In December we restarted blasting activities.” Improvements already made in the plant include new automation and controls to improve efficiencies and the use of a reagent (H88L) which is improving recoveries of tran- sitional ores. The interesting question is why Cradle Arc believes it can succeed with Mowana where its predecessors failed. “We’ve identified a num- ber of factors that we believe contributed to the mine being placed on care and maintenance, including a poor geological and mining model, lack of management oversight and inefficient control of processing,” van Wouw responds. “We’ll be bringing an entirely fresh approach and, moreover, will be operating in a much more favourable copper price environment. We also intend upscaling the operation via the installation of a low capex DMS pre-concentra- tion circuit which would increase throughput to approximately 2,6 Mt/a with very much reduced cash costs.” Cradle Arc has just completed a maiden JORC (2012) compliant resource for Mowana (based on the existing resource models and prepared by Wardell Armstrong International). It estimates a measured and indicated resource of 40 Mt at 1,17 % Cu for 466 000 tonnes of contained copper and an inferred resource of 35 Mt at 1,12 % Cu for 395 000 tonnes of contained copper. The company is following up with a JORC (2102) compliant

“The plant was refurbished and recommissioned in March 2017, initially processing oxide stockpiles and re-establishing Mowana as a copper producer.”

gold deposits in Zambia. Alecto had been work- ing closely with Penmin on the Zambian assets and a good relationship had been developed between the two companies. The deal was announced in late 2016 and, in terms of AIM rules, trading in Alecto’s shares was suspended in December 2016 pending pub- lication of an Admission Document. Says van Wouw: “This whole process took much longer than we had been advised and the delay led to Alecto being delisted in July 2017. I’m happy to say that these problems are all now behind us and that we were re-admitted to AIM in January this year under our new name of Cradle Arc. The company now holds 60 % of Mowana, with the balance in the hands of Zambia Copper Investments (ZCI), which has had an interest in Mowana since 2009 and is supportive of our efforts to redevelop the mine.” Jones – whose COO role entails him spend- ing much of his time at Mowana – says that while the problems experienced with the AIM listing in 2017 undeniably delayed progress at Mowana much was also achieved over the course of the year. “The plant was refurbished and recommissioned in March 2017, initially processing oxide stockpiles and re-establishing Mowana as a copper producer. The recoveries

Strong management at Cradle Arc Kevin van Wouw, CEO of Cradle Arc, has an Honours degree in Metallurgy from Pretoria University and has enjoyed a long career in mining. Among the companies he has worked for are DRA, LionOre Mining International and FLSmidth. He has also been instrumental in founding several companies, including Penmin and the minerals consultancy Minéro. He served as Project Manager for the Ngezi and Mimosa platinum proj- ects in Zimbabwe while with DRA and during his tenure at LionOre was Projects Director. His responsibilities at LionOre included responsibility for the commercialisation of the company’s Activox™ technology and the con- ceptualisation and implementation of Tati Nickel’s DMS plant. Mark Jones, COO, is a graduate of the Camborne School of Mines and holds an MBA. He has over 35 years’ experience in mining and related industries, with 25 of those years having been spent in Africa. Earlier in his career he worked for Anglo American in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He was founder and CEO of African Mining and Exploration (now Savannah Resources) and has also served as CEO of Aurum Mining and Expert Explosives. He was appointed CEO of Alecto Resources (now Cradle Arc) in 2013. 

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