Modern Mining June 2018

MINING News

TSX-listed Ivanhoe Mines has announced that a large capacity rock crusher has been successfully installed 1 150 m below surface at the upgraded Kipushi zinc-cop- per-silver-germanium mine in the DRC. The unit – a Sandvik jaw crusher – has a maximum capacity of 1 085 tonnes an hour. After the 54-tonne machine was disassembled on surface, the pieces were lowered down Kipushi’s main pro- duction shaft – Shaft 5 – and installed in the crusher chamber. Reassembly of the crusher is underway and commissioning is Jaw crusher installed underground at Kipushi expected to begin this month (June). “The installation of the massive new rock crusher at the bottom of Shaft 5 is a noteworthy engineering accomplishment,” said Robert Friedland, Executive Chairman of Ivanhoe. “It marks the final, major underground infrastructure upgrading project needed to resume underground mining, crushing and hoisting operations at Kipushi.” Friedland said negotiations were ongoing with government agencies – Gécamines, the state-owned miner and

Ivanhoe’s partner at Kipushi, and SNCC, the DRC’s national railway company – and potential project financiers to advance agreements to launch a new era of com- mercial production at Kipushi. “Since acquiring our 68 % interest in the Kipushi project in 2011, our team has worked with Gécamines to achieve our shared objective of resuming commercial production,” Friedland added. “In paral- lel with ongoing mine upgrading work and completion of the definitive feasibil- ity study, we are evaluating a number of proposals we have received to fund the remaining infrastructure construction.” Built and then operated by Union Minière for 42 years, Kipushi began min- ing a reported 18 % copper from a surface open pit in 1924. Then it transitioned to become a high-grade, underground cop- per, zinc and germaniummine. Gécamines gained control of Kipushi in 1967 and operated the mine until 1993, when it was placed on care and maintenance due to a combination of economic and political factors. The planned restoration of production at Kipushi is based on initial mining that will be focused on the Big Zinc deposit, which was discovered by Gécamines before it idled the mine. No mining has ever been conducted on the Big Zinc’s mineral resources.  where he worked for De Beers. He joined Firestone in 2014 as the Mineral Resources Manager on the project team and in 2016 became General Manager of Liqhobong mine. His responsibilities to date have included managing and implementing the commissioning and ramp up to commer- cial production of Liqhobong, day-to-day managing of site operations, as well as producing the recently approved revised mine plan. Prior to joining Firestone, Bosma was General Manager of a joint venture between De Beers and AngloGold Ashanti. He previously worked as a vice president for Pala Investments, an international min- ing investment fund based in Switzerland. He is a qualified geologist and holds BSc (Honours) and MSc degrees, as well as an MBA from the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. 

Main frame of the new underground rock crusher being transported to the 1 150-metre level crusher chamber (photo: Ivanhoe).

New CEO for Firestone Diamonds

AIM-listed Firestone Diamonds, which operates the Liqhobong diamond mine in Lesotho, has appointed Paul Bosma as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with effect from 1 July 2018. His appointment

follows Stuart Brown’s decision to step down as CEO and Director of the company. Bosma has more than 24 years’ experi- ence in the mining industry, of which 14 years have been in the diamond sector

Companies appointed to deliver Toliara PFS Base Resources, listed on the ASX, has appointed Mineral Technologies and Lycopodium to deliver the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) for its Toliara mineral sands proj- ect in the south-west of Madagascar.

robust and fit-for-purpose mineral process- ing plants. Base Resources anticipates PFS comple- tion in the March quarter of 2019. The PFS will build on the considerable body of work completed by previous owners of the Toliara Sands project and form the foundation for an accelerated feasibility study programme that aims to advance the project toward a decision to proceed to construction in the second half of 2019. 

As a team, Mineral Technologies and Lycopodium have previously undertaken studies and projects in minerals sands, including previous work on the Toliara Sands project, and – says Base Resources – are known throughout Africa for delivery of

16  MODERN MINING  June 2018