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Miner celebrates record year in production, safety

11th March 2022

By: Cameron Mackay

Creamer Media Senior Online Writer

     

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Last year was exceptional for mineral sands miner Kenmare Resources in terms of safety, production and sales.

Kenmare Resources MD Michael Carvill enthuses that many factors contributed to this success in 2021, citing the quality of the Moma titanium deposit, in Mozambique, the growth programme completed in 2020, and strong market conditions as some of the factors.

Moma is one of the largest titanium minerals deposits in the world and has a mine life of more than 100 years.

From 2018 to 2020, Kenmare Resources invested in three growth projects that would enable the company to expand production to 1.2-million tons of ilmenite a year.

Kenmare demonstrated Moma’s potential to operate at this increased throughput last year, which was well absorbed by the market, says Carvill.

The company is focused on maintaining its production of 1.2-million tons of ilmenite a year on a sustainable basis and is continuing to progress towards a first-quartile position on the industry revenue-to-cost curve.

The company started a prefeasibility study in preparation for mining the Nataka ore zone in 2021.

“One of our three mining plants, wet concentrator plant (WCP) A, is expected to start mining in Nataka in 2025. This is an important part of our mine plan to deliver sustainable ilmenite production.”

Carvill highlights that WCP A is expected to be moved 20 km to Nataka by dredging a corridor.

This follows the decision in 2020 to move one of Kenmare’s other mining plants, WCP B, to a new high-grade ore zone, called Pilivili. WCP B is equivalent in height to a seven-storey building, and weighs more than 7 000 t.

Moving WCP B 23 km by road in one piece represents the largest transportation of a piece of mining equipment in Africa to date, he says.

Market Conditions

Kenmare produces titanium minerals and zircon, and Carvill stresses that 2021 was a strong year for both product streams.

The global titanium minerals market was driven by global pigment production reaching record highs last year – about 90% of titanium minerals are used to produce titanium pigment.

He notes that major pigment producers operated at high minerals consumption rates to meet growing pigment demand, specifically because pigment capacity in China continued to increase. When combined with the improving titanium metal market throughout 2021, demand for titanium minerals was well supported.

While the global supply of ilmenite increased during last year, primarily from Kenmare and producers in China and Norway, this increase was insufficient to meet demand. Inventories remained low in the global supply chain in 2021.

He adds that the zircon market stabilised in the first quarter of last year following several quarters of weaker demand.

Market conditions improved in the second quarter before demand accelerated as major economies continued their recovery from Covid-19 and lifted restrictions.

Coupled with significant supply disruption, this led to tight market conditions from the second quarter onwards, continuing into 2022.

“Kenmare sold record volumes of all our products at higher average prices in 2021, compared with those of 2020, with quarter-on-quarter price increases for both our ilmenite and zircon throughout the year.”

Safety, ESG Performance

“These record-breaking results are testament to the hard work and commitment of our employees. We achieved our lowest ever lost time injury frequency rate in 2021 of 0.03 per 200 000 hours worked, representing an 88% reduction, compared to that of 2020, and more than six-million hours worked.”

Kenmare Resources also reached one year without a lost-time injury on January 6.

Carvill stresses that the company’s safety performance was a result of strengthened leadership practices, hazard identification and risk assessment.

“We are focused on maintaining our excellent safety achievement. Last year, we also published our inaugural Sustainability Report, and in 2022, we will publish our first ‘Climate Strategy’ report. This includes targets to reduce our already-low greenhouse-gas emissions.”

He adds that, in addition to the inaugural report, Kenmare’s focus on sustainability is clear through its purpose of “responsibly meeting global demand for quality-of-life minerals”, and ensuring that value is created for all stakeholders, including those in Mozambique.

Before construction of the Moma mine, the company established nonprofit organisation the Kenmare Moma Development Association, which aims to be a catalyst for positive social change in the Moma mine’s host communities.

Since the organisation’s inception, some of its achievements include drilling boreholes to provide clean drinking water and installing power lines to provide electricity for more than 24 000 people, and constructing two health centres.

He adds that, at the end of last year, Kenmare Resources employed 1551 employees at the Moma mine. More than 96% of the employees are Mozambican, with 70% sourced from the mine’s host province.

As part of the company’s response to Covid-19, Kenmare Resources also implemented a vaccination programme and, by the end of last year, 96% of its employees had received two doses.

“We also donated 12 000 vaccines to the host communities of the Moma mine last year, which followed our donation of ventilators and continuous positive airway pressure therapy machines to the provincial health authorities in 2020.”

Edited by Nadine James
Features Deputy Editor

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