Plant Equipment and Hire February 2018 | Page 19

ON THE GROUND 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 number of technical and logistical challenges, while the social and security risks remain a reality. Nevertheless, with a grade of more than 4% tin, 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 makeshift airstrip in the village of Walikale, smack bang in the middle of the Central African rainforest. Alphamin recently invited a group of 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  ×  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. 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 FEBRUARY 2018 17