Modern Mining February 2019

MINING News

The December 2018 quarter marked an important milestone for ASX-listed Lucapa Diamond Company, listed on the ASX, with the commencement of commercial diamond recoveries at the new Mothae kimberlite mine in Lesotho. Lucapa also operates the Lulo alluvial mine in Angola. Mothae diamond plant comes on stream During the quarter, Lucapa completed construction of the 1,1 Mt/a Mothae treatment plant, which incorporates two XRT diamond recovery circuits, and com- menced the commissioning phase. This enabled the first commercial diamond recoveries to be delivered as the plant was

progressively ramped up using kimberlite material from the South East domain of the Mothae kimberlite pipe. The ramping-up phase continues to progress well, with the plant on target to be operating at nameplate capacity (90 000 tonnes/month) in Q1-2019. The targeted treatment rate of 150 t/h has been achieved for extended periods and was surpassed during December 2018. By the end of the quarter, 3 089 carats of diamonds had been recovered from the processing of 78 426 tonnes of kimberlite material from the South East domain. The diamonds recovered included six Specials (diamonds weighing >10,8 carats). These Specials included D-colour white dia- monds weighing 78 carats and 38 carats. Significantly, these recoveries pro- duced a recovered grade of 3,94 carats per 100 tonnes (cpht) for the quarter – more than double the resource and forecast grades of 1,92 cpht and 1,83 cpht respectively.  ing of the deep contact below the open pit. Phase Two will continue to delineate and test the continuity and extent of the deep contact while Phase Three work will be based upon information received from Phases One and Two. This programme has been designed to add significant overall value, as well as to improve the economics of the Buckreef project. “We already know Buckreef is a great mine and it will be prosperous. The drilling of the deep contact will reveal if we have a world class mine along the lines of Bulyanhulu. We are excited,” said James E Sinclair, Executive Chairman of Tanzanian Royalty. The Buckreef gold mine redevelopment project was acquired from the Tanzanian State Mining Company (Stamico) in December 2010. Under a Heads of Agreement concluded with the state- owned company, Tanzanian Royalty has the right to earn a 55 % interest in Buckreef with Stamico holding the remainder. The project, which includes the dormant Buckreef mine, is located imme- diately to the south of Lake Victoria and 110 km south-west of Mwanza. 

The new 1,1 Mt/a Mothae diamond treatment plant (photo: Lucapa).

Three-phase drill programme for Buckreef

Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation, listed on the TSX and NYSE MKT, has announced the selection of Stamico and Coreworthy to complete Phase One of the planned three-phase drill programme at its Buckreef gold property in Tanzania.

Approximately 30 000 m will be drilled in all three phases. Phase One will be approximately 4 500 m of infill drilling designed to upgrade existing inferred ounces within the proposed open pit and to begin test-

GravityWorx to provide Technical Services to Montero Montero Mining and Exploration, listed on the TSX-V, has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with Gravity Worx Mining Solutions to provide Technical Services including but not limited to metallurgical and engineering consulting services for the potential development of the Uis lithium tin tailings project in Namibia. 14,4 Mt at 0,37 % lithium (Li 2 at 0,05 % tin (SnO 2

O) and 17,1 Mt

) in coarse and fine tail-

ings material. The project is located in central Namibia near the town of Uis, 220 km north of Walvis Bay, Namibia’s largest commercial deep-water port. The resource comprises unweathered surfacemine tailings of coarse sand tailings and slimes derived from the Uis tin mining operation between 1924 and 1990. The pegmatites were mined by open cut and hauled to a process plant for crush- ing and milling for cassiterite extraction. The mine historically produced 35 400 tonnes of cassiterite concentrate which delivered coarse and fine tailings material on surface. The pegmatites at Uis have not previously been mined or systematically sample assayed for lithium. 

These Technical Services will be provided at no cost to Montero and will allow Gravity Worx to develop a non-binding proposal to Montero to supply a metallurgical process plant to process tailings material containing lithium and tin and operational services on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis. Gravity Worx is currently finalising a non-compliant Scoping Study on the project. The Uis lithium tin tailings project has a NI43-101 inferred mineral resource of

16  MODERN MINING  February 2019

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