Mine excursion
A
lphamin Resources’ Bisie tin project in the North Kivu
province of the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC), is one of the most exciting
new developments in the mining industry. It does,
however, present a fair amount of technical and logistical
challenges, while the social and security risks remain a
reality. Nevertheless, with a grade of more than 4% tin
(Sn), it would be hard for punters not to back Bisie.
But even for investors hell-bent on a high-risk, high-reward
strategy, Bisie is bound to cause sweaty palms and white
knuckles – and not only when sitting in the office tracking the
unpredictable tin price. The self-doubt, hope, questioning and
queasiness are markedly more pronounced when clutching
both armrests of your seat as the small plane carrying
12 passengers (and a reconditioned engine), angles in to
land on the make-shift airstrip in the village of Walikale,
smack-bang in the middle of the Central African rainforest.
Alphamin recently invited me and five other South African
journalists to join the management team on an exhilarating, at
times hair raising, and somewhat arduous journey deep into the
sweltering forests of North Kivu. And here lies the dilemma
for most of the praise singers, risk takers and Bisie-believers:
the logistics of making this project work. Just getting there
is difficult. It takes a flight from Johannesburg to Kigali in
Rwanda, a three-hour drive to Goma – that includes a border
crossing to the DRC – another 40-minute flight to Walikale
and a final bumpy, four-hour roller coaster 4 x 4 drive to
reach Alphamin’s base camp on a steep hill overlooking the
intimidating dark-green patches of the gleaming forest. There
is a hive of activity, just beneath base camp, as Bisie gears up
in preparation for first tin production, expected in 2019.
A few minutes after landing in Walikale’s main road.
The hill at Bisie
The hill at Bisie has made international headlines before,
but for the wrong reasons. Not too long ago it was regarded
as a symbol of conflict minerals, a perfect example of what
could go wrong in a country ludicrously rich in mineral
resources, but without the means to regulate its extraction
and export. Over the years, Bisie’s tin has sponsored many
dubious characters, dangerous rebels and the occasional
insurgency and revolt. Only a few years ago, thousands
of artisanal miners toiled in the hand-dug, man-sized
tunnels, to make a living by selling the raw product and
paying taxes to agents of various illegal entities.
“Bisie was a honeypot of surface level cassiterite. At
one stage, there were 18 different illegal taxes that were
collected by government and armed groups,” says Richard
Robinson, managing director of Alphamin Bisie Mining.
According to Robinson, there were, at times, five armed
groups involved, and so much money, that it corrupted the
Congolese security services. Therefore, corrupt elements
were supporting different groups of artisanal miners and
illegal co-operatives. Robinson says that at one stage there
were as many as 15 000 artisanal miners working the
hill. “Today, there are less than 400,” says Robinson.
Alphamin embarked on a relentless programme of
negotiation and compromise to ensure peace returns to the
JANUARY 2018 MINING MIRROR
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