Name: Kinsevere mine.

Location: MMG’s Kinsevere mine is located about 27 km north of the provincial capital Lubumbashi in the Katanga province, in south-east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Holding and Controlling Company: MMG.

Brief Description: Kinsevere is a world-class copper mine.

The property portfolio comprises the Kinsevere, PE 528, Nambulwa and PE 539 exploitation permits.

The Nambulwa permit is [currently subject to an exploration programme].

Kinsevere has an estimated current mine life to 2024.

Brief History: MMG was originally known as 'Minerals and Metals Group'.

Minerals and Metals Group was formed in June 2009 following the purchase of the majority of assets from OZ Minerals by China Minmetals Corporation (CMC) through its subsidiary China Minmetals Non-ferrous Metals.

Minerals and Metals Group was acquired in December 2010 by Minmetals Resources a subsidiary of CMC that is listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

The company changed its registered English company name from Minmetals Resources to MMG in September 2012.

MMG completed a secondary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in December 2015.

MMG acquired the Kinsevere mine in 2012.

Products: Copper cathode.

Geology/Mineralisation: The Kinsevere project area is located in the north-eastern section of the Central African Copperbelt. Together with the Zambian Copperbelt to the south, this celebrated metallogenic province contains some of the world’s richest copper and cobalt deposits.

The Congolese and Zambian portions of the belt are located within a continuous fold zone known as the Lufilian Arc, one of several major Pan-African structures bordering the Congo and Kalahari cratons. Each portion exhibits early Neo-Proterozoic intracratonic rift development, coincident with the break-up of a Meso-Proterozoic supercontinent (between 800-to 600-million years ago (Ma)). Late Neo-Proterozoic collisional deformation and metamorphism is also documented regionally, linked to the formation of central Gondwana (about 600 Ma to 500 Ma).

The Lufilian Orogeny focused various thrust events, resulting in arcuate north-north-west lineaments in Zambia and east-west lineaments at Kolwezi. These structures are best recorded in Neo-Proterozoic Roan Supergroup sediments, which outcrop in a series of faulted and brecciated anticlines or so-called “écailles” (megafragments or rafts of sediments), which can measure up to 10 km in length.

This Supergroup comprises a 7 000-m-thick succession of predominantly shallow-marine and terrestrial meta-sediments, which accumulated within intracratonic rift basins. Major copper/cobalt deposits of the Katangan Copperbelt, including those at Kinsevere are confined to basal sections of the Lower Roan Mines Group.

Ore Reserves: Total proved and probable ore reserves for oxide copper as at June 30, 2017, were estimated at 10.7-million tonnes at 3.7% copper.

Total probable ore reserves for copper stockpiles as at June 30, 2017, were estimated at 2.5-million tonnes at 3.6% copper.

Mineral Resources: Total measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources for oxide copper as at June 30, 2017, were estimated at 19.4-million tonnes at 3.1% copper.

Total measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources for transition mixed copper as at June 30, 2017, were estimated at 1.8-million tonnes at 2.4% copper.

Total measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources for primary copper as at June 30, 2017, were estimated at 26.4-million tonnes at 2.2% copper.

Total Indicated Mineral Resources for copper stockpiles as at June 30, 2017, were estimated at 7.9-million tonnes at 2.5% copper.

Mining Method: Openpit.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Conventional mining methods are used to remove waste material and extract ore at the Kinsevere openpit mine. A combination of free-dig and drill-and-blast is required depending on ground conditions.

Ore is hauled to the run-of-mine (RoM) stockpile while waste material is stockpiled on the surface or used as construction materials for the tailings storage facility.

After mining, copper oxide ore is delivered to the RoM stockpiles from where it is fed into the processing plant through a mineral sizer followed by a semiautogenous grinding mill.

Copper is produced primarily by an agitated leach, counter current decantation, solvent extraction and electrowinning process. 

The leaching process uses a sulphuric acid solution to extract copper from its solid copper oxide form into a solution referred to as pregnant leach solution (PLS).

After separating the copper containing solution (PLS) from the slurry, the copper is sent to the solvent extraction (SX) plant. The SX process uses mixing and settling tanks to transfer copper from the PLS into a solvent solution. The density difference between PLS and the solvent is used to separate the two solutions after the copper has been transferred. The copper in the solvent solution is then transferred to an acidic high-copper-containing electrolyte, using similar mixing and settling tanks.

The high-copper-containing electrolyte is sent to the electrowinning process where it is exposed to the electrolytic processes (similar to a battery). In transferring electrical charge from anode to cathode, copper is brought out of solution and deposited onto stainless steel cathode plates.

It takes six days for sufficient copper to deposit and form a sheet on the cathode plate. At this time, the copper sheets are harvested and are weighed and bundled for transport and sale.

Prospects: MMG, civil society groups and a coalition of mining companies remain in negotiations with the Democratic Republic of Congo regarding the application of the Mining Code Amending Act signed into law on March 9, 2018.

The group is seeking to better understand the application of the law and seek recognition of the application of Article 276 of the 2002 Mining Code, which provides a ten-year security of investment rights from the date of the Amending Act of 2018.

While MMG supports the government’s intention to balance investment promotion and improve development opportunities for the people of the DRC, MMG does not believe the new law will achieve this. 

As an alternative, the mining industry has proposed a modified ‘sliding scale’ for royalty payments providing for a guaranteed larger share of revenue at higher prices. So far, the government has not considered the proposal.

With elections scheduled for the second half of 2018, industry and civil society representatives will continue to advocate for improvements to investment and development laws.

Contact: MMG deputy decretary general Freddy Elonga

Contact Details:

MMG

Tel +243 082 010 6380

Email freddy.elonga@mmg.com

Website http://www.mmg.com