Mineral process and project man- agement company MDM Engineering has been awarded the bankable feasibility study (BFS) by Botswana-based mining company Global Initiatives for Botswana State-owned company BCL’s Dumps Tailings Retreatment Project (DTRP), in Botswana.

Global Initiatives, in which South Africa-based corporate finance advisory firm Allan Hochreiter holds a shareholding, has acquired the rights to the DTRP and has entered into a public–private partnership with BCL to retreat existing tailings and smelter slag at BCL’s Selebi Phikwe operation.

Global Initiatives, Allan Hochreiter and BCL announced in August last year that they planned to retreat about 100-million tons of mine tailings and 45-million tons of smelter slag at the Selebi Phikwe mine to recover nickel, copper and cobalt.

At the time, the companies expected the construction and commissioning of a $140-million plant to treat up to 40 000 t/d of tailings and slag to start within 12 to 24 months.

“The initial scoping study showed a measured resource of 178 000 t of nickel in the tailings dump. “We believe this resource can be brought to account and further add significantly to the life of the Selebi Phikwe mine complex,” says Global Initiatives executive director Atang Makgekgenene.

The partners will use the BFS, which will be completed in June 2012, as the basis for an investment decision.

The scope of work includes the construction of a flotation concentrator plant within defined battery limits and its supporting plant infrastructure.

Surface infrastructure will include temporary construction services, topsoil stockpiles, in-plant roads, stormwater and potable water, sewerage and power reticulation, process and other plant buildings, reagent receipt, storage and distribution and security and fencing for the concentrator plant site.

Meanwhile, MDM Engineering has also been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction manage-ment contract for South African miner Gold Fields’ Tarkwa project, in Ghana, which will include the provision of services for the carbon-in-leach (CIL) crushing plant expansion project.

In September last year, MDM completed a conceptual study for the CIL crushing optimisation project, which examined the existing testwork, plant operations and plant equipment to develop the flow sheets to best achieve the optimisation.

In March this year, detailed engineering and design work was submitted and, based on this, MDM will be moving forward with expanding the project.

“We are thrilled to have been awarded the next phase of the Tarkwa project. We have been working with the Gold Fields team for some time now and believe that we have added value to the project with our extensive experience and working knowledge in Ghana,” says MDM CEO Martin Smith.