Modern Mining February 2018

EVENTS

exhibiting and delivering presentations at the Indaba, this year’s event also saw a refocus- ing on the junior mining sector in a conscious attempt by the organisers to return the show to its roots. A highlight was the new Junior Mining Showcase, a dedicated area on the exhibition floor designed to give emerging and small com- panies a platform to promote their projects. Modern Mining found this an attractive feature of the show although it must be said that many of the companies participating in the Showcase seemed to have packed up their stands early to judge from the number of empty booths on the last full day of the Indaba. Making its appearance again this year after debuting at the 2017 event was the ‘Investment Battlefield’ aimed at giving juniors the oppor- tunity to pitch their projects to a panel of judges representing the investment com- munity. Among the finalists out of the 22 companies who participated were Deep-South Resources, which holds the Haib copper pro­ ject in Namibia; Thor Explorations, which has the advanced Segilola gold project in Nigeria; Opal Mining, an emerging South African miner with a focus on vanadium; Algold, which is exploring for gold in Mauritania; Kibaran Resources, which is developing the Epanko graphite deposit in Tanzania; M2Cobalt, a cobalt explorer with licences in Uganda; and Bannerman Resources, which owns the Etango uranium project in Namibia. In the event, the winner was Thor Explorations, listed on the TSX-V. The company was represented by its CEO, Segun Lawson, who made a strong case for the Segilola proj- ect, located approximately 120 km from Lagos. Segilola will comprise an open-pit mine served by a new 500 000 t/a processing plant, which consists of a conventional crushing circuit, single stage grinding, CIL, elution, electrowin- ning and smelting to produce gold doré. The mine will produce an average of 81 000 oz/a in years 1 to 3 and 47 000 oz/a in years 4 to 7. Pre-production capex is estimated at US$71,4 million. Lawson said that he believed that min- ing at Segilola would start by the end of this year with first gold production being achieved 15 months after that. As mentioned, there are strong hopes for a resurgence of mining in Zimbabwe and it was noticeable that there was a strong Zimbabwean delegation – led by the new Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Winston Chitando – in Cape Town to reinforce the message that the new administration welcomes investment in the country’s mining sector. Chitando, who has had a long career in

trend was now reversing, and despite its great mineral wealth, Africa last year attracted only 14 % of global exploration expenditure, ver- sus 30 % to South America and 28 % to North America. “As long as African countries offered mining codes and fiscal regimes that were reasonably investor-friendly, companies were prepared to take the risks of limited or non-existent infra- structures and skills bases, as well as political volatility. Start making unreasonable demands, however, and investors will vote with their feet,” he said. While Mbazima and Bristow addressed the major issues facing mining, many CEOs focused on the projects their companies were pursuing, with one of the best presentations being given by Robert Friedland, Executive Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines. He gave a characteristically entertaining talk, stressing the importance of metals such as copper and platinum to the fast- emerging electric vehicle industry and talking up the company’s three Southern Africa proj- ects – the Platreef in South Africa, and Kamoa/ Kakula and Kipushi in the DRC. Friedland did not tell delegates anything they had not heard before but he is a compelling speaker and there seems to be a consensus in mining circles that the three projects are indeed top class, particularly Kamoa/Kakula, which now ranks as one of the biggest – and richest – copper finds in history and certainly the biggest in Africa. He also gave an update on the Platreef project near Mokopane, noting that it would have the biggest vertical shaft on the African continent (with a hoisting capacity of 6 Mt/a) and could potentially emerge as the world’s big- gest platinum mine in its third (12 Mt/a) phase of development. He added that the project rep- resented 21 years of hard work, dedication and faith in the future of South Africa. Although there were plenty of majors

Master Drilling launches its Mobile Tunnel Boring (MTB) solution.

“Africa last year attracted only 14 % of global

exploration expenditure,

versus 30 % to South America and 28 % to North America.”

32  MODERN MINING  February 2018