Modern Mining June 2016

COMMENT

Quiet conference in Gaborone

H aving just returned from the Bo- tswana Resource Sector Con- ference (BRSC) in Gaborone, I thought I would share with read- ers some of my impressions of the event, which I’ve been attending for the past decade and which is a firm favourite of mine. First off, let me say that this was the quietest BRSC I’ve yet attended. In saying this, I’m not so much referring to the delegate count – at 288 it was on the low side but perfectly respectable given current market conditions – but rather the absence, with a couple of notable exceptions, of any really exciting presentations on new devel- opments within the Botswana mining industry. What was also a little disappointing was the lack of support for the conference from some of the biggest players within Botswana’s mining sector. Debswana, for example, didn’t present at the event and nor did BCL, which owns the nickel/copper mine at Selebi-Phikwe and the Tati nickel operation near Francistown. I appreciate, of course, that Debswana is much smaller than it used to be – it has cut production quite dramatically to adjust to weak global demand for diamonds – and that BCL is struggling to survive. Nevertheless, these two companies are the twin pillars of Botswana’s mining industry and it would have been valu- able to have heard from them on their current activities and future plans. Debswana, incidentally, was not the only diamond mining company to be absent from the list of presenters. Neither Gem Diamonds, which owns the Ghaghoo underground dia- mond mine in the Central Kalahari, nor Kimberley Diamonds, which has just recom- missioned the Lerala diamond mine, gave presentations. I can perhaps understand Gem’s decision not to participate given that it has downsized operations at Ghaghoo but I would have thought that Kimberley – which presumably has a good story to tell – would have liked to have shared its experiences with delegates. In fact, it was left to Paul Day, the Gaborone- based COO of Lucara, to carry the flag for Botswana’s diamond mining industry. His pre- sentation covered the Karowe diamond mine. There was nothing particularly new in it but Paul is an accomplished speaker and his deliv- ery went down very well with his audience. Particularly entertaining was his account of how – in November last year – he received a phone call from Karowe’s GM, Gerry Ndlovu, giving the incredible news that the mine had recovered an 1 100-carat stone – the second

largest in history after the famous Cullinan diamond. Paul immediately flew up to the mine to see for himself this extraordinary stone. As he recounted, this was the start of an amazing week for both himself and Lucara as, within another day or so, two more exceptional stones – one of 813 carats and the other of 374 carats – were recovered by the mine’s newly installed XRT diamond recovery units. As far as I can recall, there was not a single presentation on diamond exploration but one explorer, Pangolin Diamonds, did at least have a stand in the exhibition area. Pangolin, whose Chairman is Dr Leon Daniels, has a number of projects in Botswana including Malatswae, where 13 diamonds have been recovered at surface, and Motloutse where a kimberlite drill target, MG08, has just been identified. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Leon at length about Pangolin’s activities but I have noticed that the company’s shares have been moving up nicely in recent months – which perhaps suggests that we should be pursuing an article on these two projects. Moving on to copper, there were two excel- lent presentations given at the conference, one by Johannes Tsimako of Khoemacau Copper Mining and the other by Julian Hanna of Australia’s MOD Resources. Both these compa- nies are active in the Kalahari Copperbelt and I will be covering their projects in more detail in our July issue. Suffice it to say here, however, that Khoemacau is one of the few companies actually planning to build a new mine in Botswana. As Johannes explained, it intends starting construction of an initial 3,65 Mt/a starter project in the first quarter of next year. The use of the term ‘starter’ suggests a small project but in fact the capex is a very substan- tial US$341 million. Finally, what of coal? Sadly, there was not much new to report. Companies such as Shumba, Jindal and African Energy are doing their best to bring their substantial coal reserves to account but at this stage there is little pros- pect of Botswana becoming an exporter of coal, given current market conditions, as well as the country’s transport constraints. It appears that the only way to monetise Botswana’s coal resources will be to build power stations and export power to the Southern African region. I’ve no doubt that this will happen in time but progress is painfully slow and my guess is that very little will have transpired by the time the next conference is held in a year’s time. Arthur Tassell

It appears that the only way to monetise Botswana’s coal resources will be to build power stations and export power to the Southern African region.

June 2016  MODERN MINING  3