Modern Mining June 2019

COMMENT

Miners meet in Gaborone

I n last month’s issue, we looked at the state of the mining industry in Botswa- na. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to attend the annual Botswana Resource Sector Conference (BRSC) in Gaborone, attended this year by about 300 delegates, and meet – or renew my acquaintance with – some of the players in the country’s mining sector. The conference was opened by Botswana’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technol- ogy & Energy Security, Eric Molale. Probably the pick of the presentations deliv- ered at the conference was one given by Johan Ferreira, CEO of both Cupric Canyon Capital and its subsidiary in Botswana, Khoemacau Copper Mining, in which he updated delegates on the nearly US$400 million Khoemacau cop- per/silver underground mine in the Kalahari Copperbelt. He told delegates that the project was now very much in the execution phase, with pre- liminary work – such as the building of a construction camp – having started in October last year and access road construction, bush clearing and bulk earthworks in December. The excavation of the three big boxcuts the project requires kicked off in March this year and is already well advanced. The major contractors on site are Concor for the access roads and other civil works and Kalcon for the boxcuts while the keenly contested underground min- ing services contract has just been awarded to Ausdrill subsidiary Barminco. Johan – who I had the opportunity to chat with at the conference – is well known, of course, in mining circles, having served as GM of both the Moab Khotsong and Great Noligwa gold mines in South Africa and as Senior VP, South African Operations for AngloGold Ashanti, after which he enjoyed a stint as a senior executive with Newmont in Ghana, ending as Regional Senior VP – Africa Region. He joined Cupric in 2017 as Head of Africa Operations but has since taken over as CEO, based mainly in Gaborone. Also presenting on copper were Julian Hanna and Kebalemogile Tau of MOD Resources/ Tshukudu Metals, who provided an update on the T3 (Motheo) project, while Nigel Forrester of Mount Burgess Mining brought delegates up to speed on the Kihabe poly-metallic project. Another speaker dealing with base metals was Roger Key of Kalahari Key Mineral Exploration Company, which is exploring for Ni and PGMs in the Molopo Farms Complex’s Feeder Zone. Moving on from copper and given that 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the establish- ment of Debswana, the joint venture between De Beers and the Government of Botswana that

owns four of the country’s five active diamond mines, it was not surprising to see that the group was well represented at the BRSC with a large stand in the exhibition area. A presen- tation recounting Debswana’s achievements was given by Mooketsi Puso, Lead Engineer, Projects. He told the Debswana story very well although I would have liked to have heard more on the Cut 9 and Cut 3 projects at Jwaneng and Orapa respectively. The only other speakers on diamond min- ing and exploration were James Campbell, MD of Botswana Diamonds, who gave an excellent summation of the company’s activi- ties in both Botswana and South Africa, and Dr Leon Daniels, CEO of Pangolin Diamonds, who assessed the future of Botswana’s dia- mond resources. Leon – who discovered his first kimberlite at the age of 21 – is a veteran of diamond exploration in Botswana and his company is currently one of the most active explorers in the country, with 14 prospecting licences in its portfolio. Disappointingly, there were no presentations on coal, which was surprising given that there are at least three new coal mines in the pipeline in Botswana, although there was some cover- age of coal bed methane (CBM) with Tim Hoops of Strata-X Energy describing his company’s Serowe CBM project. A big surprise to me was that there is actu- ally a graphite project in Botswana. This is being pursued by Tonota Resources, whose Exploration Manager, Nico Scholtz, addressed delegates. I talked with Nico at the conference and will be providing further coverage on the project in a future issue. Finally, I should make mention of a presen- tation by Charles Siwawa, CEO of the Botswana Chamber of Mines, who – among other things – displayed an interesting graph showing how mining’s contribution to Botswana’s GDP has been in decline for years. In 1990 mining accounted for a whopping 45 % of GDP but this figure is now hovering around 15 %. Obviously, one of the reasons for mining’s reduced contribution is that Botswana has a far more diversified economy than 30 years ago. Having said this, there’s no doubt that the coun- try’s mining sector has the potential to regain some of the ground it has lost, with coal and copper leading the comeback. While it’s highly unlikely that mining will ever again dominate the economy to the extent it did in 1990, it would certainly not surprise me to see its contri- bution to GDP increasing over the next several years, as projects in the Kalahari Copperbelt and new coal mines come on stream. Arthur Tassell

Mining’s contribution

to Botswana’s GDP has been in decline for years. In 1990 it accounted for 45 % of GDP but this figure is now hovering around 15 %.

June 2019  MODERN MINING  3