Modern Mining January 2020

Toliara project is expected to have catalytic impact,” he comments. “It will create transformational oppor- tunities for our communities, economic stimulus for the Toliara region and a flagship foreign investment for the government that is forecast to directly gener- ate in excess of US$1 billion in government revenue and community development expenditure over the 33-year mine life.” The Toliara project is located in south-west Madagascar, 45 km north of the regional port town of Toliara, 18 km inland from the coast, and approxi- mately 640 km south-west of Antananarivo, the capital city. The project is based on the the Ranobe deposit, which comprises a single continuous body of mineralisation approximately 20 km long, 1,5 to 4,5 km wide and 3 to 60 m in thickness. The heavy mineral (HM) mineralisation (including ilmenite, rutile and zircon) extends from the surface. The deposit has three mineralised units. These are the upper sand unit (USU), a well-sorted, fine-grained unconsolidated aeolian sediment min- eralised unit; the intermediate clay sand unit (ICSU), a thin unit of high slime content; and the lower sand unit (LSU), a medium-grained quartz sand miner- alised unit with moderately low slimes content. The LSU onlaps the limestone (LST) basement. The

deposit thickness generally increases to the west. The JORC-compliant mineral resources estimate stands at 1 290 Mt at 5,1 % HM and 6,4 % SL, including 790 Mt at 5,8 % HM in the measured and indicated categories. The estimate is unchanged from the PFS. The JORC-compliant ore reserves estimate stands at 586 Mt at 6,5 % HM. Base Resources is an experienced mineral sands miner. It acquired the Kwale mineral sands project in Kenya in 2010 and, over the ensuing three years, funded, engineered, constructed and commissioned the project, which is now a very suc- cessful mineral sands mine. It is hoping to repeat this experience with Toliara, which it acquired in early 2018. The company subsequently advanced the project rapidly, completing a concept study and the PFS by March 2019. As detailed in the DFS, the Toliara project will be implemented in two stages following a nine-month Early Works/Feed programme to take into account higher ore grades in the early years. Over its 33-year life, it is expected to deliver approximately a com- bined 840 kt/a of chloride ilmenite, sulphate ilmenite, slag ilmenite, zircon and rutile. Stage 1 consists of the engineering, procure- ment, construction and commissioning of Heavy

A dozer trap mining unit. This is the mining method that will be employed at the Toliara project.

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January 2020  MODERN MINING  29