Mining companies evaluate heavy sand mining in southern Mozambique

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Mining companies evaluate heavy sand mining in southern Mozambique

11:49 CAT | 18 Dec 2017

Mining companies Savannah Resources and Rio Tinto are to start gathering samples of heavy sand in Inhambane, southern Mozambique, at a site expected to be rich in industrial minerals.

“A pilot unit capable of processing 20 tonnes [of sand] per hour will be used to produce concentrate as part of the Mutamba project’s feasibility study,” Savannah Resources told investors in a statement to which Lusa has had access.

The minerals that the consortium hopes to obtain from the heavy sands are used in the production of paint, plastic, paper and textiles, as well as in the ceramic industry.

Savannah Resources predicts that the feasibility study will be completed by 2018, with a final investment decision being taken in 2019.

The London-based company, which is also listed on the stock exchange, also extracts lithium from the Barroso Mine in northern Portugal.

The start-up of the Mozambique testing unit is considered “an important step” by company CEO, David Archer.

“Things are still at a very early stage, but a pilot unit is an important part of the project study,” he said in the statement.

The Mutamba consortium was formed late last year and consists of Savannah Resources, its wholly owned subsidiary AME East Africa and Rio Tinto, an Australian and British mining and metals company.

AME East Africa is in charge of operating the sample extraction project on behalf of the consortium, through its subsidiary Matilda Minerals.

Savannah Resources believes that “there is potential for a financially robust and long-lasting project” in Mutamba, Inhambane.

The mine could run for up to 30 years from 2020 with an average annual production of 456,000 tonnes of ilmenite and 118,000 tonnes of non-magnetic concentrate.

In June, in another presentation on the project, Archer said that the Mutamba could be “a great industrial development for the region” with the capacity for 332 direct jobs and a further thousand indirect ones.

Source: Lusa