Modern Mining January 2017

TOP PROJECTS

AFRICA’S TOP MINING PROJECTS In our regular Top Mining Projects feature we look at projects distinguished by their size, innovation or pioneering spirit. This year we have identified four that meet these criteria, three of them in the Southern African region and one in West Africa. The commodities covered are graphite, tin, gold and zinc.

O ur graphite project is Balama in northern Mozambique, now at an advanced stage of construction. The new mine is being developed by Australia’s Syrah Resources at a cost of US$185 million and will have the capacity to produce 350 000 tonnes of concen- trate a year at 98 % Total Graphitic Content (TGC), with the reserves being sufficient for over 40 years of operation. Africa is awash with graphite projects, primarily in Mozambique and Tanzania, but Balama is the front-runner as it is just months away from first production. It is also notable inasmuch as it will exploit the world’s largest flake graphite resource and will rank as the world’s biggest graphite mine. Balama will employ traditional open-pit bench mining methods, with the mining opera- tion projected to be 100 % free dig for the first five years. The process route is conventional and will include crushing, grinding, flotation, filtration, drying, screening and bagging. The final concentrate will be packed into bags and trucked to the Port of Nacala, some 490 km to the south-east. The second project we cover in our Top Mining Projects feature is the Bisie tin project in the relatively remote North Kivu Province of the DRC. Bisie has some real challenges to overcome including the legendary instability of the Congo as well as difficult logistics but the rewards should be significant if the devel- oper, TSX-V-listed Alphamin Resources, can successfully get the deposit into commercial production. Bisie is, after all, one of the big- gest – and highest grade – tin deposits in the world and is just crying out to be mined. With a Feasibility Study in place and DRA named as the preferred EPCM contractor, Bisie is – as they say – ready to roll and Alphamin is hoping that it will enter construction later this year. If this is achieved, first production can be expected in 2019. Once at steady-state, the mine will produce 10 750 tonnes of tin in concentrate on average per year, accounting for roughly 3 % of world tin production. No feature on Africa’s Top Mining Projects would be complete without at least one gold mine, as gold is arguably Africa’s signature

metal. There are a number of gold mines either in development or just commissioned on the continent, particularly in the West African region, but the standout is undoubtedly Asanko in Ghana. Phase 1 of Asanko was com- missioned early last year and is now producing well above its nameplate capacity. With Phase 1 of Asanko shooting the lights out, developer Asanko Gold – run inciden- tally by mining entrepreneur Peter Breese who is well known in Southern African mining circles – has made the decision to now pro- ceed to Phase 2A of the project, which will see the Esaase deposit, 25 km to the north of the Phase 1 mine, being brought to account. Phase2A is a major project in its own right and has a capex of US$125 million. It will include the construction of a 27 km long single-flight overland conveyor, which will be one of the longest in the world. Phase 2A will eventually be complemented by Phase 2B and once both these phases are in place, Asanko will rank as the seventh largest gold mine in Africa, with an annual gold pro- duction of up to 470 000 ounces a year. Our final project – Gamsberg – is located in the arid Northern Cape of South Africa near the town of Aggeneys. The developer is Vedanta Zinc International, which is investing US$400 million in the construc- tion of a new open-pit zinc mine which will supplement its current underground min- ing operations at Black Mountain, just a few kilometres away. The ground-breaking ceremony for Gamsberg was held in the middle of 2015 but development is now entering its peak phase with the appointment, late in 2016, of the bulk mining contractor and the EPCM contractor for the plant and related infrastructure. Gamsberg is notable not only because Vedanta has managed to cut capex by a full US$200 million over original estimates but also because it is located in an area identi- fied as a biodiversity hotspot. Vedanta has responded to the challenge of building a mine in an environmentally sensitive area by launching an environmental programme which it believes will provide a new bench- mark for the mining industry. 

Africa is awash with graphite projects, primarily in Mozambique and Tanzania, but Balama is the front-runner as it is just months away from first production.

Top projects

January 2017  MODERN MINING  25