Exploration
Central Africa
Drilling expands Kamoa
Location: DRC
Resource: Copper
According to Robert Friedland, executive co-chairman at Ivanhoe,
the newly delineated copper corridors occur on the western flank
of the unmineralised Kamoa Dome at Kamoa North.
Ivanhoe recently issued a statement, saying that the most
significant corridor trends north and south for more than nine
kilometres before swinging to the north-west and is projected to
continue onto the adjacent Western Foreland exploration licences
that are 100% owned by Ivanhoe Mines. “The second corridor
trends west-southwest, away from the Kamoa Dome and towards
the West Scarp Fault, over a distance of three to four kilometres.”
“Our latest exploration success, at Kamoa North, provides
additional options for mine planning and sequencing at
Kamoa-Kakula,” says Friedland. “The unparalleled strength
and continuity of the high-grade mineralised trends on the
Kamoa-Kakula project also bode well for the potential for
further success right next door, on Ivanhoe’s 700km² Western
Foreland exploration licences, north and west of Kamoa-Kakula,”
Friedland adds.
West Africa
Birimian awaits approval
Location: Mali
Resource: Lithium
Timbuktu Resources, the Australian exploration company
Birimian’s wholly owned subsidiary, has lodged the
environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) report
for the Goulamina lithium project with Mali’s environment
department (Direction Nationale de l’Assainissement et du
Contrôle des Pollutions et des Nuisances, or DNACPN).
According to Birimian, five copies of the main report and
its 17 appendices were lodged with the department in
Bamako, the capital of Mali, on 6 November 2018. The
ESIA has been prepared by the company’s environmental
consultant, Digby Wells Environmental. Lodgement of the
ESIA sets in motion a statutory maximum period of 45
days to obtain environmental approval.
www.africanmining.co.za
Exploration drilling at Ivanhoe’s Kamoa North prospect area,
the 397km² Kamoa-Kakula mining licence, approximately
25km west of the mining centre of Kolwezi in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC), has successfully delineated two
new, continuous corridors of shallow copper mineralisation
containing zones of thick, high-grade copper.
Ivanhoe’s exploration target in the DRC.
The Tier 1 Kamoa-Kakula project is a joint venture between
Ivanhoe Mines, Zijin Mining, and the DRC government. An
independent mineral resource estimate published in February 2017
established Kamoa-Kakula as the world’s fourth-largest copper
discovery. According to Friedland, Kamoa-Kakula’s copper grades
are the highest of the world’s top 10 copper deposits.
The Kamoa North exploration area is about 12km north of
Kamoa’s Kansoko Mine development and approximately 20km
north of the Kamoa-Kakula project’s planned initial mine at the
Kakula deposit. The discovery area already is accessible by an
all-season road that connects with the provincial road to Kolwezi
and is close to the newly installed electricity line running from
Kamoa North to the planned Kansoko and Kakula mines.
North Africa
Tiris DFS under way
Location: Mauritania
Resource: Uranium
The Tiris uranium project’s definitive feasibility study (DFS)
in Mauritania is progressing well. Owners of the project, Aura
Energy, completed all the major work by the end of last year. The
study was revived last year following a period of inactivity due to
the low uranium price.
Tiris is a near-term development project with production
expected in 2020. It has a 17 million pounds triuranium octoxide
(U 3 O 8 ) resource in the measured and indicated category.
Tiris is Aura’s key development project with a production target
of one million pounds per annum. (On 16 July 2014, the company
released to the market the Tiris project scoping study based on
a production rate of one million pounds per annum. Since that
date, the company has continued to advance the Tiris project with
resource drilling, metallurgical test work, and engineering studies.)
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