Engineering & Mining Journal

JUN 2016

Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr

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REGIONAL NEWS - AFRICA 18 E&MJ; • JUNE 2016 www.e-mj.com Rusal, Guinea Sign Bauxite/Alumina Production Agreements Russian aluminum producer Rusal and the Republic of Guinea have signed agreements that will allow Rusal to re- start currently suspended production at the Friguia bauxite/alumina complex and initiate mining of the Dian-Dian bauxite deposit in Guinea. The Friguia complex includes a bauxite mine, an alumina refnery and a 160-km-long railway, as well as other infrastructure. Production was suspended in April 2012. Nameplate capacity totals 2.1 million metric tons per year (mt/y) of bauxite and 650,000 mt/y of alumina. Bauxite reserves are estimated at 325 million mt. The new Friguia agreement calls for operations to resume in January 2017, with alumina production gradually in- creasing to within a range of 550,000 to 600,000 mt/y. Rusal will also prepare a project draft and a social and economic feasibility study for modernization of Friguia, in- cluding the possibility of increasing its production capacity by as much 1.05 million mt/y. The company and the gov- ernment expect to make a decision on the expansion project by the end of 2020. The agreement regarding development of the Dian-Dian bauxite deposit is sep- arate from the Friguia agreement. The Dian-Dian deposit has confrmed reserves totaling 564 million mt and is the world's largest established bauxite deposit. The new Dian-Dian agreement is an annex to previous agreements and calls for staged development, frst to construct a mine having 3 million mt/y of bauxite capacity by the end of 2017, followed by an ex- pansion to 6 million mt/y by late 2021. Further development to produce 9 million mt/y and then 12 million mt/y will also be considered. By the end of 2020, Rusal and the government will discuss possible oppor- tunities to build an alumina refnery at Dian-Dian, having capacity to produce up to 1 million mt/y of alumina. Regarding the status of the potential refnery, Rusal CEO Vladislav Soloviev said, "Taking into consideration the current situation in the global aluminum market, Rusal's manage- ment and the government of the Republic of Guinea have agreed that today there is no economic rationale behind the launch of new refning facilities. We have agreed to focus on resuming operations at the ex- isting Friguia facilities and on the stage- by-stage development of the Dian-Dian mine in line with the agreed schedule." Guinea currently hosts about one-quar- ter of documented world bauxite reserves, the largest total of any country. It ranks fourth in bauxite production behind Aus- tralia, China and Brazil. Simfer Joint Venture Submits Feasibility Studies to Government Rio Tinto reported in mid-May that the Simfer joint venture has submitted mine and infrastructure bankable feasibility studies for the Simandou South iron ore project to the government of Guinea. The project is based on one of the world's largest untapped, high-grade iron ore re- sources, totaling more than 2 billion mt. Simfer is a joint-venture company ultimately owned by the government of Guinea (7.5%); Rio Tinto (46.6%); Chalco Iron Ore Holdings, a consorti- um of Chinese state-owned enterprises led by Aluminium Corp. of China (41.3%); and the International Finance Corp. (4.6%). Rio Tinto stated that the studies in- clude details for the development of both a world-class iron ore mine and a multi-user and multi-usage infrastruc- ture project based on work carried out over the past two years by Simfer, Chi- na Harbour Engineering Co., China Rail- way Construction Corp., and other inter- national mining and construction con- tractors. However, the Rio Tinto press release did not include any of the pro- ject details. Vital Metals Starts Scoping Study at Kollo Australian junior development compa- ny Vital Metals has initiated a scoping study to assess the viability of develop- ing an open-pit mining and processing operation on its 100% owned Kollo gold project in Burkina Faso. The study will initially comprise a program of infll and step-out ex- ploration drilling and resource model- ing, followed by evaluation of mining and processing methods, infrastruc- ture, waste handling and environment- al requirements. Previous exploration drilling at Kollo has returned broad intercepts of shal- low, high-grade gold mineralization that appears suitable for mining by open-pit methods. Preliminary metallurgical test- work has demonstrated that the gold is free and fully liberated, with better than 95% recoveries achieved from conven- tional cyanide leaching. The scoping study will build on these foundations, and, subject to completion of the infll-drilling program, Vital is aim- ing for completion of the study by the end of August. Vital intends to complete the study to a suffcient level of detail to allow it to proceed directly to a defnitive feasibility study on the back of the expected strong results. Vital believes that Kollo, as a near-sur- face gold deposit, has the right charac- teristics to be developed as an open-pit mining operation with low capital expen - diture, low operating costs and high pro- jected margins. The agreement will allow restart of mining at Friguia, plus preparation of studies for future expansion there. (Photo: Rusal)

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