Consolidated Nickel Mines wins top honours in Investment Battle eld
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competition
Zambia-focused Consolidated Nickel Mines ( CNM ) won the rst Investment Battle eld Competition for junior miners at this year ' s Investing in African Mining Indaba , with Sula Iron & Gold in second place . CNM , a subsidiary of Consolidated Mining and Investments , is planning to restart the 4 500 t / y brown eld Munali nickel mine , 70 km south of Lusaka , where operations were stopped in November 2011 , owing to low nickel prices and poor operational performance by its previous owners . CNM CEO Simon Purkiss said that while the decision to compete in the Investment Battle eld was rather last minute , the results have been “ fantastic ”. “ Presenting , and then winning , has meant that there was a lot of discussion about the company and the project following the results , which has continued since the Mining Indaba . “ �e message we were presenting was that we were raising the funds to restart the mine and so the exposure came at just the right time . �e feedback from the judges , not only to us but to the audience on the merits of the project , was very well received ." Sula Iron & Gold , meanwhile , is an Aim-listed company focused on the exploration for gold , iron-ore and coltan in Sierra Leone . �e Mining Indaba introduced the Investment Battle eld platform to support Africa ' s new generation of emerging miners , giving 16 junior mining companies the opportunity to pitch their projects to a panel of expert investors , competing for prizes that will support the development of new projects . “ Identifying the best junior mining companies for investors and supporting the development of new projects is at the core of Mining Indaba , and will be a growing part of the Mining Indaba in the future ,” said Mining Indaba MD Alex Grose . Total prizes , valued at more than £ 15 000 include free attendance passes , an exhibition stand and hotel accommodation for the 2018 Investing in African Mining Indaba .
FMDZ | Jan - Feb 2017 | Page05