JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Minerals processing and project management company MDM Engineering has started with the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase of the Kalagadi Manganese Umtu sinter plant project, in the Northern Cape.

Last year, the company completed a bankable feasibility study for the Kalagadi Manganese project, which valued it at R3,5-billion.

The FEED phase would incorporate a control budget estimate to take advantage of the weaker commodity prices in the current environment, it added.

“This is a significant step forward in the development of the Kalagadi Manganese project,” MDM Engineering CEO Grant Lowman stated.

The Kalagadi Manganese project will be the first black economic-empowerment (BEE) grass roots mining project developed and controlled by women in South Africa.

The company was also “engaging” with Kalagadi Manganese on a number of other matters, it said in a statement.

The Kalagadi Manganese project, which is situated near Hotazel, would include the development of a manganese mine, a beneficiation plant and a sinter complex.

This would produce about 2,4-million tons a year of sinter product and would require three-million tons a year run-of-mine material.

The project also included a proposed 320 000-t/y high-carbon ferromanganese smelter at the Coega Industrial Development Zone, in the Eastern Cape.

Steel giant ArcelorMittal owned a 50% stake in the project, while women-controlled BEE company, Kalahari Resources, owned a 40% stake. State-owned development finance institution, the Industrial Development Corporation, holds the remaining 10%.

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