Modern Mining September 2016

MINING News

Pioneering StepWise methodology used on BCL projects Selkirk underground nickel mine near Francistown is in progress.

“We have utilised the StepWise pro- cess to quantify potential and value and to this end developed an extensive range of parameters and options that were then ranked utilising the unique StepWise methodology in order to accurately determine the most financially viable options for the projects,” says Marthinus Odendaal, the project manager on both projects. Each phase of the project study (Conceptual, Pre-Feasibility and Feasibility) should incrementally and realistically add

Advisian, the strategic advisory arm of global project delivery company WorleyParsons, is utilising a pioneering and successfully proven methodology called StepWise which was developed in- house to undertake two studies for BCL, a state-owned copper and nickel mining company in Botswana. Advisian is in the process of finalis- ing a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) for BCL’s Maibele North copper and nickel project while a Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) for a new open-pit mine at the existing

Donovan Munro, Principal Mining Engineer at Advisian, says the StepWise methodology has played an instrumental role in the early determination of finan- cial viability for the two projects. In both instances the StepWise process has been able to identify early on the challenges to economic viability that would only have been detected much later in the proj- ect cycle, had purely traditional project delivery methodologies been used.

The Selebi-Phikwe and WorleyParsons project team.

BMR Group enters into option agreement for Zambian licence AIM-listed BMR Group – which is focused on the recovery of lead and zinc from the tailings deposits of Zambia’s oldest mine at Kabwe – reports that it has entered into a 60-day exclusive option agree- ment with Bushbuck Resources Limited of Zambia to acquire Bushbuck’s Large Scale Prospecting Licence 19653-HQ-LPL (Star Zinc) in an area to the immediate north of Lusaka, for a total cash consideration of US$1 million plus taxes. head grade to increase Zn production at BMR’s proposed processing plant at Kabwe. This is expected to enhance the quality of the product, subject to test work to confirm its compatibility. This, in turn, the company expects, would underpin the long-term future of the Kabwe operation. BMR’s first priority will be to undertake a drilling programme on the karst fill/sap- rolitic material in the area of the present open pit to determine the extent of the, as yet, untested surface mineralisation and to establish a mineable resource. BMR plans initially to spend up to US$200 000 over the next 18 months. BMR believes the acquisition of Star Zinc would represent an important strate- gic step for the company as the in-situ ore contains high grade zinc which is planned to be either blended with the tailings from Kabwe’s leach plant residues to improve metal recoveries or used to raise the plant Wardell Armstrong International was instructed by BMR earlier this year to pre- pare a technical report for the company

into the geological potential of Star Zinc and review the historic and in-house metal- lurgical test work results. The Star Zinc licence comprises 83 km 2 and is situated approximately 15 km NNW of Lusaka on the Great North Road and 90 km from Kabwe. The deposit was mined briefly in the 1950s by open-pit methods with the ore treated at the Kabwe mine. The deposit was drilled by Chartered Exploration (the geological exploration arm of Anglo American) in the 1960s. Later, AVMIN Development (Zambia) Ltd acquired the licence and undertook a limited amount of exploration. Based on Chartered Exploration’s 1960s drilling programme, in January 2015 CSA Global reinterpreted the results and

10  MODERN MINING  September 2016