Name of the Project
Nokeng fluorspar mine and concentrator project.

Location
The project is located at Rust de Winter, 80 km north-east of Pretoria, in Gauteng, South Africa.

Project Owner/s
Nokeng Fluorspar Mine, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sepfluor.

Project Description
The Nokeng project has a South African Code for the Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves-compliant reserve of 12-million tonnes.

The project comprises two high-quality, adjacent hematite/fluorspar deposits – Plattekop and Outwash Fan – and includes the unexplored Wilton deposit.

The project entails the construction of a mine that will produce between 130 000 t/y and 185 000 t/y of acid-grade fluorspar and 30 000 t/y of metallurgical-grade fluorspar, at an average run-of-mine rate of 630 000 t/y.

The mine has an estimated life-of-mine of 19 years.

Potential Job Creation
Employment of more than 380 people from the nine local communities around the mine is expected during the construction phase and an estimated 200 permanent jobs once the mine is in operation.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
R1.7-billion.

The Nokeng fluorspar project has been funded by a combination of equity from shareholders. The equity consists of an investment amounting to 45%, with the other 55% of equity in the form of a loan from the principal lenders.

The lenders are local commercial bank Nedbank Limited, German state-owned entity Deutsche Investitions Und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (DEG) and Dutch private-sector financial institution Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij Voor Ontwikkelingslanden NV (FMO). Each lender has contributed almost one-third of the loan.

Planned Start/End Date
Construction started in July 2017, with first production expected in 2019.

Latest Developments
SepFluor’s new Nokeng fluorspar mine is in the final stages of commissioning, which is expected to take a further three to six weeks to complete.

SepFluor subsidiary Nokeng Fluorspar Mine started mining in April last year, with ore already being fed into the relevant plants in early 2019. The plant flowsheet consists of a primary crusher, secondary crusher, a tertiary crushing circuit, mill/float circuit and final product filtration.

The ramp-up will involve initially achieving the final product specifications at a lower recovery than design and slowly ramping up over this period to full recovery and final output of about 15 000 t a month of acid spar and 2 500 t a month of met-spar.

SepFluor CEO Rob Wagner has emphasised that the company has always planned to be a vertically integrated fluorspar company. This will involve using the raw materials gained from the first two fluorspar mines and then building a fluorochemicals plant to beneficiate the fluorspar.

The plan is to build SepFluor’s downstream beneficiation plant in Ekandustria, near Bronkhorstspruit, in Gauteng.

The company is involved in fund-raising activities for the plant, having completed a new bankable feasibility study at the end of last year. SepFluor expects to close financing for the plant by the end of this year.

The plant will produce about 60 000 t/y of hydrofluoric acid, with 41 000 t/y of this expected to be used to produce aluminium trifluoride, creating a surplus of 19 000 t/y of hydrofluoric acid.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Nokeng Joint Venture, comprising DRA Projects SA and Group Five Construction (main contractor, with Group Five responsible for the construction work and DRA responsible for the design and management of the project).

On Budget and on Time?
The project is on time and on budget.

Contact Details for Project Information
Sepfluor, tel +27 12 622 9400, fax +27 12 622 9494 or email info@sepfluor.co.za.