Modern Mining July 2017

MINING News

Walkabout signs ‘Heads of Agreement’with Jinpeng

Walkabout Resources, an Australian junior listed on the ASX, has signed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with a private mid-sized engineering company, Yantai Jinpeng Mining Machinery Co Ltd (Jinpeng) in China, to engineer, manage and build the Lindi Jumbo process plant and shared infrastructure package on site in Tanzania. Jinpeng has extensive experience in designing, manu- facturing and building graphite flotation facilities in China and building plants in Africa. The Engineering, Procurement and ConstructionManagement (EPCM) service contract will include a Deferred Payment Option by means of a fast-track application already underway, which provides access to funding provided through the Chinese

Governments’ new US$1 trillion ‘Silk Road – One Belt, One Road’ (Silk Road) initiative. Detailed engineering and design services are to commence immediately while the EPCM agreement, a final estimate and funding is progressed. Selected and critical equipment is to be sourced from BGRIMM, an internationally recognised flotation equipment engineer. Walkabout’s technical input and interests will be managed under an Owners Representation Agreement by Dr Evan Kirby, and a South African based engineering group. Walkabout is fast tracking the development of the Lindi Jumbo project to take advantage of forecast market conditions for flake graphite deposits with high ratios of Large and Jumbo flakes. The company currently holds 70 % of four licences at Lindi Jumbo with an option to acquire the remaining 30 % share. “Jinpeng is a highly competent and experienced engineer- ing company,” comments Trevor Benson, Executive Chairman of Walkabout Resources. “This EPCM and deferred payment funding is an optimal outcome for our fast-tracked development strategy. This funding model should significantly reduce the project capital required by the company.” The project is located in south-east Tanzania approximately 60 km inland from the coast and 200 km from the Port of Mtwara. It adjoins the Nachu graphite project of Magnis Resources, also listed on the ASX. Mining will be by open-pit methods. Weathered ore and waste will be excavated using a hydraulic shovel and loaded onto 30-t dump trucks for hauling out of the pit to the ROM stockpile, low grade stockpiles or waste dumps. Where the weathered mate- rial requires ripping by dozer before excavating, this will be done using a tracked dozer. Fresh ore and waste will be drilled and blasted before being loaded and hauled in a similar manner. A graphite processing flowsheet has been developed based on an extensive metallurgical test work programme. The proposed flowsheet includes primary and secondary crushing, scrubbing, milling (via a primary rod mill), sequential rougher/scavenger flo- tation, regrind cleaner flotation, filtration and concentrate drying,

Drilling at Lindi Jumbo in 2016 (photo: Walkabout Resources).

screening of final product concentrate and bagging of concentrate. The plant has been sized for a feed of 300 kt/a of ore with a grade of >16 % TGC to produce a graphite flake concentrate with an average grade of 97 % TGC. A Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) cen- trally managed from Johannesburg by independent mining consultancy Bara International was completed in February 2017. It confirmed the project to be techni- cally sound with excellent economic returns even at potential softening price regimes for premium graphite flake material. Payback period for the project – which has an esti- mated upfront capex of US$38,7 million – is less than two years. The DFS was based on an annual production of 40 000 tonnes of graphite concentrate. 

Helio acquisition will boost New Luika’s resources AIM-listed Shanta Gold and TSX-V-listed Helio Resource Corp have entered into a definitive arm’s-length arrangement agree- ment which, subject to Helio shareholder approval and British Columbia Supreme Court approval, will see Shanta acquiring all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Helio.

these resources are located within 20 kmof the existing NLGM processing plant. The JORC-compliant resources include: an open-pit indicated gold resource of 332 koz at 1,8 g/t and an inferred resource of 17 koz at 1,6 g/t; and an underground indicated gold resource of 258 koz at 4,9 g/t and an inferred resource of 27 koz at 3,8 g/t. The acquisitionwill result in an increase in Shanta’s gold resource ounces of 77 % from 824 koz at 1,9 g/t to 1 459 koz at 2,09 g/t. Shanta intends to incorporate these resources into its future mine plan and explore the potential to expand the NLGM production rate incorporating these addi- tional resources as soon as possible. 

The deal will mean that Shanta will acquire Helio’s SMP project which is imme- diately adjacent to Shanta’s operating New Luika Gold Mine (NLGM) near Mbeya in Tanzania. Helio’s resource consists of an NI 43-101 compliant gold resource totalling 635 koz of gold at an average grade of 2,4 g/t. All of

12  MODERN MINING  July 2017