Modern Mining August 2016

MINING News

A recent aerial view of the Balama project site (photo: Syrah Resources).

Reporting on its activities during Q2 2016, ASX-listed Syrah Resources says that US$22,9 million was spent on the Balama graphite project inMozambique, increasing total project development expenditures to US$47,1million as at 30 June 2016. An additional US$60 million in development expenditures has been committed, which brings total actual and committed capital expenditures to US$107 million, against a revised capital cost estimate of US$175mil- lion for the project. According to Syrah, development Balama well into the construction phase activities at Balama continue to progress well with the detailed engineering and design on schedule for completion this month (August). Major procurement activ- ities are now complete with mechanical equipment and structural steel deliveries to Balama having begun. Regular visits to key equipment and material suppliers are being conducted to ensure that deliv- ery dates and quality standards are being maintained. Notices of Award have been issued for the major construction contract

(Structural, Mechanical and Piping (SMP)) and various operational contracts (includ- ing mining, transport and logistics, fuel supply and laboratory services). Sealing of the 7 km access road is complete and work is progressing on the construction of the internal plant site roads. Process plant and infrastruc- ture concrete works are well advanced with approximately 3 400 m 3 of concrete poured in all major areas (ore bin, primary crushing facility, primary mill and flotation circuit) during the quarter. Clearing for the construction of the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) is substan- tially complete and construction of the facility has begun. There has been a substantial ramp up of key personnel with approximately 830 direct staff and contractors currently working on site. Ongoing recruitment of qualified Mozambican nationals continues to strengthen the team, says Syrah. The site has now achieved over 1 mil- lion hours worked without a Lost-Time Injury. The Balama project is situated in Cabo Delgado Province in northern Mozambique, some 200 km west of the port town of Pemba. According to the feasibility study on Balama, the project – which will employ simple open-pit mining – will have a production of over 350 kt/a. 

Aftan plans upgrade of Tantalite Valley plant A IM- l i s ted Kennedy Ven t u re s ha s announced a conditional placing to raise £2,0 million before expenses. The net pro- ceeds of the placing will be used by African Tantalum (Aftan), Kennedy Ventures’ investee company, to upgrade and expand Aftan’s current plant at the Tantalite Valley Mine (TVM) in Namibia and open up the lepidolite orebody.

lite as mining moved through the orebody. Additionally, TVM has encountered signifi- cant amounts of lithium-bearing ores that the existing plant is not currently configured to recover. The work programme is designed to address these issues as well as signifi- cantly enhance the productivity of TVM. Once the work programme has been implemented, TVMwill target a throughput of 15 000 tonnes per month (the previous target was 10 500 tonnes) and an output of 15 tonnes of tantalite concentrate. It is anticipated that all the increased product volume will be supplied to Aftan’s offtake partner under the existing agreement. 

Kennedy Ventures says its operational cashflow has been constrained since Aftan reopened TVM and recommissioned the existing processing plant at the end of 2015. This is due to irregular mine grades and an unexpectedly high proportion of fine tanta-

12  MODERN MINING  August 2016