African Mining February 2021 | Page 13

PROJECTS AND EXPLORATION •

The company says in a statement that payments have progressed significantly on all major long-lead items required for the contracts , including 17 dump trucks , seven blast hole drill rigs , three excavators and all major ancillary support equipment such as dozers , graders and water trucks .

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• Location : DRC

• Phase : Development

• Resource : Copper

Robert Friedland and Yufeng ‘ Miles ’ Sun , co-chairs of Ivanhoe Mines , announced that underground development at the Kamoa-Kakula copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC ) mined and stockpiled 269 000 tonnes of ore in December 2020 . Ore grading at about 5.36 % copper was taken from the Kakula and Kansoko mines , including 55 000 tonnes ( t ) grading 8.75 % copper from the high-grade centre of the Kakula mine . The tonnage was 7.6 % higher than November , while the copper grade was 10.5 % higher .

The project ’ s pre-production surface stockpiles now contain approximately 1.52 million tonnes of high-grade and mediumgrade ore at an estimated blended grade of 4.03 % copper . Contained copper in the stockpiles increased by approximately 14 400t in December – a 30.9 % increase over November ’ s production reflecting the increased mining in the ultra-high-grade centre of the Kakula Deposit – to a cumulative total of more than 61 000t .

The company also made progress on several of the debt facilities contemplated in the capital raising prospectus , including executing a USD2.6-million vendor finance agreement with Epiroc , fully drawing down on the remaining tranches of a USD10-million Macquarie facility , and soon using an USD8.5- million vendor facility it has with Sandvik .

Capital says discussions are advancing with lenders on additional facilities designed to provide the company with balance sheet flexibility for further growth , with the capital requirements for the Sukari contracts now met . Mining activity at Sukari is expected in the first quarter of 2021 .

• Location : Mali

• Phase : Exploration

• Resource : Gold

AIM-listed Altus Strategies has announced encouraging initial results from the ongoing 10 000m Reverse Circulation ( RC ) drilling programme at the Diba gold project in western Mali . Diba hosts a shallow-dipping near-surface gold deposit and several other prospect areas . Altus , also discovered two new zones at the Diba NW prospect , 800m northwest of the Diba deposit .

According to Steve Poulton , CEO of Altus , results from the RC drilling programme includes 3.34 grammes per tonne of gold ( g / t Au ) over 60m from 17m downhole from within the Diba deposit .

• Location : Egypt

• Phase : Development

• Resource : Gold

London mining services company Capital Limited secured a transformational contract with Centamin ’ s Sukari gold mine in Egypt in December . According to Capital Limited the transaction was the largest contract it had secured to-date and would increase the company ’ s revenue by more than 40 % over the four-year duration of the contract . In a recent statement the company reported that payments on major capital equipment items related to waste mining and extended drilling services at Sukari have progressed rapidly .

“ Separately we are highly encouraged by intercepts outside the margins of the current MRE envelope , indicating along strike and down-dip continuation , including 4.48 g / t Au over 15m from 22m on its western side and 22.11 g / t Au over 6m from 89m on its eastern side ,” says Poulton .

“ The current drilling programme is also testing satellite prospects to the main Diba deposit . Initial results received from the Diba NW prospect indicate the discovery of two potentially significant , shallow-dipping and consistent zones of mineralisation totalling approximately 750m in strike length with intersections including 0.87 g / t Au over 21m from 79m ,” Poulton adds .

“ A number of priority prospects have not been tested in the current programme and we anticipate that these will be drilled in a follow-up programme , once physical access to the drill rig is complete ,” says Poulton . •