Modern Mining January 2018

MINING News

KCC’s WOL facility starts commissioning and hot commissioning is still expected to commence in H2 2018.”

TSX-listed Katanga Mining announced in December 2017 that it had successfully completed the hot commissioning of the core of the first train of its new whole ore leach (WOL) processing facility at its subsidiary Kamoto Copper Company (KCC)’s copper and cobalt mine in Lualaba Province, DRC. The Luilu site, where the WOL and electrowinning plants of KCC are located, successfully produced its first copper cathode on 11 December 2017. Copper and cobalt production at KCC has been suspended since September 2015 pending the construction of theWOL project. A progressive ramp-up and com- missioning of the remainder of the first train is expected to follow over the ensu- ing three months, with the objective of achieving full capacity on the first train by the end of Q1 2018. Johnny Blizzard, Chief Executive Officer of Katanga, commented: “We are very pleased to have met our anticipated bud- get and timetable for commissioning the first train of our new plant and are opti- mistic that the tangible improvements from using a whole ore leach processing circuit will be seen in the near future. We look forward to ramping up to full pro- duction capacity of the first train. The construction of the second train of the WOL plant is also on schedule and budget

the Segilola gold project through to production. The new licences will add to Thor’s existing pipeline of West African gold exploration projects.” Thor Explorations, listed on the TSX‑V, recently released positive results for its independent Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) on Segilola. This examined an open-pit mine served by a new 500 000 t/a processing plant, consisting of a conventional crushing circuit, single-stage grinding, CIL, elu- tion, electrowinning and smelting to produce gold doré. The PFS envisions a project with a 17-month construction period and a seven-year mine life. 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.  Construction of the sulphuric acid and sulphur dioxide production plant at KCC will involve a capex of US$237 million spread over 2018 and 2019. This facility – which is expected to start hot commis- sioning in H2 2019 – will improve the reliability of the supply of these reagents to the WOL processing circuit. The acid plant is designed to produce 1 900 t/d of sulphuric acid, 200 t/d of sulphur dioxide and 17 MW of co-generated power. This will reduce KCC’s reliance on imported volumes of reagents brought to the mine through various international borders.  Separately, Katanga reports it has approved capital expenditure budgets for the engineering and construction of an upgraded cobalt processing plant (the ‘Cobalt Debottlenecking Project’) and a sulphuric acid production plant at KCC. The debottlenecking project will cost US$15,8 million and will allow the existing cobalt processing circuit at KCC to align with the life-of-mine average cobalt pro- duction plan of 30 000 t/a. Katanga has also approved US$49 million for cobalt product dryers as part of the cobalt pro- duction circuit. The hot commissioning of the projects is expected to commence in Q4 2018.

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Thor granted new licences near Segilola Thor Explorations, which is listed on the TSX-V and is the 100 % owner of Nigeria’s premier gold project, Segilola, has announced that the Office of the Nigeria Mining Cadastre has granted – through Thor’s wholly owned subsidiary, Segilola Gold Ltd – four new gold exploration licences, located in south-west Nigeria. The new licences, which total 334 km 2 , are located between 30 km and 80 km from the Segilola project and cover significant sections of the structural trends that extend northwards from the Segilola high-grade gold deposit.

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Comments Segun Lawson, Thor’s President and CEO: “The acquisition of these licences is in line with Thor’s strategy to capitalise on its first mover advantage in Nigeria where we have established a strong, experienced exploration team and are developing

January 2018  MODERN MINING  19