Modern Mining March 2018

MINING News

DFS work starts on Segilola gold project

Battery Minerals sets a “cracking pace” at Montepuez

nomics at a low capital cost, but also identified several specific opportunities for further project optimisation,” comments Segun Lawson, President and CEO of Thor. “These are the focus areas of the DFS, as we strive to enhance the Segilola project’s value for all of our stakeholders. In addition to the DFS work and near-term develop- ment of Segilola, we are continuing with exploration at Segilola and progressing our pipeline opportunities both in Nigeria and Senegal, with a focus on generating medium-long term value.” Segilola is located in Osun State of south-western Nigeria approximately 120 km from Lagos. Gold mineralisation extends from surface to a depth of up to 300 m down dip over a strike length of 2 km. It is anticipated that the deposit will be developed as an open-pit mine served by a new 500 000 t/a processing plant, which consists of a conventional crushing circuit, single stage grinding, CIL, elution, electrowinning and smelting to produce gold doré. The mine will produce an aver- age of 81 000 oz/a in years 1 to 3 and 47 000 oz/a in years 4 to 7. Pre-production capex is estimated at US$71,4 million. The mine is to be developed in three stages, incorporating two interim stage pits. Mining operations will be carried out using conventional drill-and-blast and load-and-haul mining methods with 3,5 Mt of ore and 62,0 Mt of waste being extracted over a period of seven years. A detailed mining schedule has been devel- oped that requires minimal pre-stripping prior to plant commissioning. Thor recently won the ‘Investment Battlefield’ competition at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town for the project. 

Thor Explorations, listed on the TSX-V, has begun Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) work and pre-development workstreams at its 100 %-owned Segilola gold project in Nigeria. The DFS workstreams are targeted towards de-risking and optimising the project following the completion of the Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) in October 2017. The PFS returned robust economics with an after tax NPV 5% of US$138 million and an IRR of 53 %, with a number of specific opportunities with the potential to enhance the project economics. Drilling has commenced, initially focused on metallurgical, open-pit infill resource drilling and geotechnical drilling. Following completion of this programme, Thor intends to continue with further resource drilling on identified opportunities. The company has also initiated a detailed fixed-wing LIDAR and photo- imagery survey of the exploration licence (incorporating the mining licence) that will provide an accurate topographical base for site planning and detailed design engi- neering. It will also provide further social and environmental information and addi- tional data for exploration activities. Thor is also continuing to assess the resource potential at depth with a view to a potential future transition of operations from open pit to underground, extend- ing the mine life beyond the PFS mine plan. Further exploration work has also been planned to investigate identified geochemical anomalies on strike, assess- ing the potential for near-pit satellite opportunities. “The PFS not only returned solid eco-

Australia’s Battery Minerals reports that it is well on track to start producing graphite at its Montepuez graphite project in northern Mozambique by November this year, with rapid progress being made on key con- struction items and supply contracts. Several long-lead items have been ordered, other equipment has already arrived on site and key supply contracts have been awarded. Following Battery Minerals’ successful capital raising in late 2017, the company is fully-funded for these purchases and early earthworks totalling A$10 million. The prices of these items are within previ- ous budget estimates and in line with the costings provided in the Value Engineering Study (VES). Battery Minerals’ Managing Director, David Flanagan, said the company’s devel- opment strategy was progressing to plan. “The company has placed orders for all the long-lead items to lock in delivery times, which will in turn help ensure we start com- missioning Montepuez in late 2018. “With recruitment well underway, off- take agreements in place, early earthworks happening and processing plant mobilis- ing to site, the team has set a cracking pace and used the wet season to lock down all key equipment supply contracts and get ahead on services and early works.” The current development at Montepuez is Stage 1, which is an approximately 50 000 t/a graphite flake project, with a life of at least 20 years. Battery Minerals has also disclosed its intention to grow produc- tion to approximately 100 000 t/a through the execution of Montepuez Stage 2. 

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