PROJECTS AND EXPLORATION
TIETTO’S KNOCKOUT WIN
• Location: Côte D’Ivoire
• Phase: Exploration
• Mineral: Gold
For the past two years the annual Investing in African
Mining Indaba has afforded junior miners the opportunity to
compete for investor funding in the ‘Investment Battlefield’.
This year an actual boxing ring in the main exhibition area of
the event served as the stage for the contenders.
Mark Strizek, MD of Tietto Minerals impressed the
judges most with the company’s entry: Fast tracking the
development of the Abujar Gold Project and emerged as the
ultimate Battlefield winner.
Abujar is located about 30km from the major regional city
of Daloa in central western Côte D’Ivoire and the current
resource stands at 45.5 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.5 grams
per tonne gold (g/t Au) for 2.15 million ounces (Moz) of
contained gold.
Any emerging mining company with projects in Africa with
a market cap of USD50-million or below is eligible to apply
and an initial screening sees successful applicants grouped
according to commodity and lifecycle stage.
The RFP included as part of its requirements a thorough
and working understanding of current laws and
regulations for mining processes and operations which
are located in Tanzania, including, but not limited to ‘The
Mining Local Content Regulation, 2018’, and compliance
with this regulation. The Buckreef project is near the
Mnekezi Village in the Geita District of Tanzania.
Tanzanian Gold announced that it has accepted and is
in the process of reviewing bids for work necessary for
mining processes which include, but are not limited to,
advising and taking an active role in final feasibility with
particular emphasis on developing processing solutions
for the recovery of gold. To be considered, bidders
were required to offer and qualify as independent third
parties to the company for transparency, technical
expertise and soundness, unbiased expertise to execute
process testing, provide engineering services to develop
and verify the Carbon In Leach (CIL) and Carbon In
Pulp (CIP) process plant proposed by the company.
The company further states that there are a number
of additional transparency requirements to meet with
company's authorised persons.
SEMAFO BACK ON TRACK
• Location: Burkina Faso
• Phase: Production
From this point they are invited to pitch their project to the
investor judges, where they have just five minutes to put
their best business case forward, after which judges provide
feedback for ten minutes. Not only do the emerging miners
get the opportunity to pit their project against those of
their peers, but also receive invaluable feedback based on
the expertise of the judges. A series of knock-out rounds
gradually reduces the contenders until an ultimate winner
is identified.
By the third and final day of the Investment Battlefield
programme, Tietto Minerals was joined in the final round by:
Arc Minerals – represented by Remy Welschinger, finance
director, Eco Graf – represented by Andrew Spinks, MD,
Roscan Gold – represented by Nana Bompeh Sangmuah,
president and CEO.
In announcing the winner, Dominic Piper, Editor, Paydirt
Media spoke of the key features of Tietto Minerals’ pitch
and said they had taken three things into consideration in
their final selection: the strength of fundamentals of the
commodity; the quality of the asset; and the quality of the
team itself in realising shareholder value.
BUCKREEF REVIEWS BIDS
• Location: Tanzania
• Phase: Feasibility
• Mineral: Gold
TSX and NYSE listed Tanzanian Gold Corporation announced
that it has advertised, issued, received and is reviewing
the qualified bid responses for the Buckreef Gold Project's
Request For Proposal (RFP) for its mining process.
6
African Mining March 2020
• Mineral: Gold
Canadian company Semafo’s processing plant at its
Bougou mine in Burkina Faso has restarted after the
devastating attack on its workers in November last
year, which left 37 dead. According to a statement by
the company, the mine has started processing the
stockpiles. It said in the statement that the company
is taking a measured approach to Boungou in 2020
involving a phased plan.
The initial three-month phase contemplates processing
the stockpile and utilising the on-site supplies inventory
with limited deliveries of new supplies. During this
period, the mine expects production to reach between
42 000 and 46 000 ounces.
As part of the phased plan, employees and contractors
who were previously travelling on the public road are
being transported by air between Fada and Boungou
and lodged at the mine site. Currently, the mine is using
a 10-person helicopter.
When construction of the airstrip has been completed,
Semafo anticipates transitioning to an airplane. “Our
phased plan foresees a restart of mining in the fourth
quarter while continuing to process stockpiles. The
current stockpile holds 1.1 million tonnes at an average
grade of 3.4 g/t Au, representing about ten months of
mill feed. However, we need the government to improve
security on the public road and in the surrounding
region in order to increase the frequency of deliveries
required to operate after the initial three months. We
are in discussions with the authorities regarding the
necessary security plan. We are also in discussions with
mining contractors to replace African Mining Services at
Boungou by the fourth quarter,” the statement said.
www. africanmining.co.za