JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Minbos Resources has secured licences for all deposits within its 50%-owned Cabinda phosphate project, in Angola.
The company announced on Tuesday that the Angolan Ministry of Mines and Geology (MGM) had issued a licence for the Chivovo, Chibuete, Ueca, Cambota and Mongo Tando deposits.
The licence was valid for a five-year period to October 14, 2020, and was renewable for a further two years.
This followed the awarding of a five-year licence for the Cacata deposit earlier this month.
Minbos was focusing on the development of the high-grade Cacata project, in Cabinda, while growing its current resource base in incremental stages on the remaining deposits in Angola.
“The Cabinda project remains without peer in the Atlantic basin,” commented Minbos CEO Lindsay Reed.
A scoping study on the Cacata deposit had shown it could produce about 800 000 t/y of phosphate rock over a ten-year mine life. A bankable feasibility study was expected to be completed in 2016.
Minbos could apply for a licence to mine the Cabinda project once it had completed an environmental-impact and economic viability study.