Modern Mining January 2017

GRAPHITE

mining contractor, and CMC Africa, responsible for the civils. As at the end of November 2016, the labour force on site numbered 1 435 people, including 245 employees from the eight host communities local to the mining concession. In announcing the appointment of Kentz, Syrah noted that the company had successfully operated in Mozambique for 18 years and had a proven track record of delivering major mining and metals construction projects in the country. These have included contracts for the Moma mineral sands mine, the Moatize coal mine and the Mozal aluminium smelter, as well as

With the inclusion of the Balama East deposit, the 2013 estimate has grown substan- tially with Syrah in May 2015 announcing a total JORC-compliant resource of almost 1,2 billion tonnes at 11,0 % TGC for 128,5 Mt of contained graphite and reserves of 81,4 Mt at 16,2 % TGC for 13,2 Mt of contained graphite. The ore reserve figure has since increased by 40 % with Syrah reporting in November 2016 that proved and probable reserves now total 114,5 Mt at 16,6 % TGC for 18,6 Mt of con- tained graphite. Snowden delivered a full feasibility study (FS) on the project in May 2015, which con- firmed Balama as the world’s largest flake graphite project. As detailed in the FS, Balama will have a nameplate capacity of 350 000 tonnes of concentrate per annum at 98 % TGC, with the reserves being sufficient for over 40 years of operation at full production. The average head grade will be approximately 19 % TGC during the first 10 years of opera- tions. The FS estimated the IRR at 71 % with a post-tax NPV 10 of US$1,1 billion and put the payback period at less than two years from commercial production. The Balama mine is now at an advanced stage of construction. Initial site clearing started in 2015 and construction of the pro- cessing plant in 2016. The key contractors on the project are Kentz (part of SNC-Lavalin), which is the SMP (Structural, Mechanical and Piping) contractor, Tayanna Mozambique, the

Lining of the Tailings Stor- age Facility (TSF) under- way with the plant in the background.

The process route at Balama comprises crushing, grind- ing, flotation, filtration, dry- ing, screening and bagging. Some of the flotation cells are seen here.

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January 2017  MODERN MINING  27