Kenyan heavy minerals project set for success
Mineral sands miner Base Resources is positive about the prospects of its Kenya-based $310-million Kwale mineral sands project, located about 50 km south of Mombasa and 10 km inland from the Indian Ocean.
The miner last month received an export permit to wave off its first bulk shipment from the Kwale project and reported that the maiden shipment of about 25 000 t of ilmenite recently set sail from the Likoni marine facility, which was completed in December last year.
Base Resources added that deliveries of finished ilmenite and rutile product were being stockpiled in the 60 000-t-capacity port’s storage shed in advance of the shipment.
Further, all work packages at Kwale were complete and operational, with the exception of the zircon circuit of the mineral separation plant, which was undergoing feed commis-sioning.
Zircon production was scheduled to start in the last week of February. Kwale produced its first ilmenite and rutile concentrate in December last year.
Mine Site Facilities
The Kwale processing plant is designed to process ore, recover ilmenite, rutile and zircon products and generate several reject streams. A dozer-trap mining unit has been selected as the optimum mining method, instead of a large bucket wheel excavator.
A port facility will also be built at Likoni, 50 km north of the project site, on the southern side of the existing shipping channel that services the Port of Mombasa. The Kwale project has a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant reserve of 140.6-million tons, grading at 4.9% total heavy minerals, of which 61% is in the proven category.
It boasts a 13-year life-of-mine and is expected to produce about 4.7-million tons of product.
Some of the project’s key suppliers include natural resources and development solutions company SRK Consulting, Barclays Capital, Standard Chartered Bank, German State-owned lender West LB and Caterpillar Finance (underwriters); engineering, procurement, construction and management solutions provider Ausenco (main contractor – detailed design and engineering, and engineering, procurement and construction management contract); turnkey solutions provider Actom (power station) and minerals company Lamco (port facility).
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation