Molten pig iron
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A 2013 drilling programme at the Tenge resource block of Baobab Resources’ pig iron and ferrovanadium project, in the Tete province of Mozambique, has revealed “significant” intercepts and reported an average head grade of 42% iron.
These results were substantially higher than the 36% iron head grade of the combined Tenge and Ruoni resource, and in line with the weighted average of 45% iron reported from channel sampling of two large trenches straddling the enriched summit of the Tenge mountain.
An increase in head grade was likely to result in lower yearly run-of-mine tonnages and, consequently, lower overall mining costs a ton of pig iron produced.
The 2013 drill programme followed some 35 000 m of diamond and reverse circulation (RC) drilling across all four Tenge and Ruoni resource blocks in 2011 and 2012, which culminated in the estimation of a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant combined resource of 553-million tons at 36% iron, of which 335.8-million tons was classified as inferred and 217.3-million tons was classified as indicated.
A further 173.9-million tons of inferred resources were also estimated at the Chitongue and South Zone blocks to the west, resulting in a global resource base of 727-million tons.
Bulk samples collected from the Tenge trenches had been processed at the Mintek laboratories, in South Africa, and were being dispatched, along with bulk coal and carbonate samples, to pilot plant facilities in the US and Japan for reduction testwork.
Analysis of the remaining drill hole samples was on target for completion and compilation by the end of February.
Drilling programmes during the year focused on converting the upper portions of the Tenge resource block, representing a minimum ten years of operation, to a compliant measured resource, which was expected by the end of the first quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, unfluxed bench scale smelting testwork confirmed that a low-impurity pig iron product could be produced using Baobab's iron-ore and local Mozambique thermal coal.
Further fluxed smelting testwork was nearing completion and would provide the first empirical data on the composition of the vanadium and titanium slag by-products. Results were expected to become available in the coming weeks.
“The RC results to date offer particular encouragement as they point towards the potential for higher head grades at Monte Tenge. This will have a significant impact on mining and processing costs over the first decade of production,” commented Baobab MD Ben James.