Modern Mining August 2015

NIOBIUM

on multiple fronts

Tremont is described as “an African-focused mining platform backed by Denham Capital, a leading energy and resources global private equity firm.” Tremont is advised by Pangea Exploration, led, of course, by well-known South African explorationist Rob Still. As evidence that it is serious about develop- ing Panda Hill, Cradle has recently appointed Dennis Cooke as General Manager of the proj- ect. A metallurgist by profession, he has over 25 years’ experience in the mining industry and is well-known in South African mining circles as he was, for 11 years, the GM of the Vergenoeg fluorspar mine north of Pretoria. He will be responsible for the construction, commission- ing and ultimate steady state operations and performance of the Panda Hill mine. The project is now well into the Feasibility Study (FS) phase. The same consultants who were involved with the PFS have been retained for the FS, namely MDM Engineering, responsi- ble for the plant and infrastructure component of the study, Coffey (geology), SRK Consulting (mining and geotechnical), SGS Canada (met- allurgical test work), SLR Consulting (tailings and groundwater study) and MTL Consulting (environmental). The PFS outlined a base case project based on an open-pit mining operation providing 2 Mt/a mill feed over a 30-year life of mine (LOM) with material being treated through milling and a single stage flotation process to produce a concentrate suitable for standard ferroniobium (FeNb) production in an on-site converter. This is the same scale of operation that was considered in the Scoping Study and

Hill (with an option to purchase the balance), is a junior company. The project is nevertheless well resourced with Cradle having executed a binding agreement with Tremont Investments recently in terms of which Tremont will pro- vide up to US$20 million to earn up to a 50 % stake of Cradle’s interest in Panda Hill. It is anticipated that post the farm-in and option exercise, Cradle’s interest will remain at 50 %.

Centre: Drilling at the Panda Hill project site in Tanzania. Below: Stylised processing route for the Panda Hill niobium project.

August 2015  MODERN MINING  29