Selkirk adds six years to Tati Mine life
Isaac Pinielo | Friday June 24, 2016 16:36
TNMC has two main assets or resources, being Phoenix and Selkirk with the former having depleted its ore and has been mothballed.
TNMC head of mining, Koketso Botepe told BusinessWeek that the EIA process started February this year.
A notice published in the Government Gazette last Friday stated that TNMC is embarking on a project that will enable an increase in the life of mine by five to six years, stating that without this project TNMC will close by the end of 2016. The company, which is located about 35 to 40 kilometres from Francistown, intends to treat five million tonnes per annum whose end product, concentrate, will be treated at the BCL Smelter in Selebi-Phikwe.
He explained that the company was exempted from carrying out a full EIA by the Department of Environmental Affairs on the basis that it previously did one for the same project in 2008. “The current one is an Environmental Management Programme (EMP) and was carried out by a local consultant, Sangwenu Engineering and Environmental Consultants,” he said. The proposed Selkirk Open Pit Mine development project is located within the Tati Nickel Mine lease area, 10 to 15 km from the mine.
According to Botepe, the evaluated portion of the deposit has 128.4 million tonnes of ore graded at 0.21 percent nickel, 0.23 percent copper. However, he said there is still an extensive area not evaluated where the deposit is deeper and not amenable to open pit mining.
The cash-strapped nickel-mining company was now facing a challenge to ensure that its mine lifespan was extended since the resources at its opencast concessions were on the verge of depletion.
Botepe also indicated that TNMC has two main assets or resources, being Phoenix and Selkirk. “Since 1995, mining was focused more on the Phoenix resource, which has now been depleted, save for sub-economic ore that may be mineable in future subject to world nickel price increases,” Botepe said.
He added that Selkirk has been lying dormant since 2002, but has resources that can replace Phoenix, hence efforts to re-develop Selkirk to extend the life of mine. He reiterated that if Selkirk is not brought online early enough the mine could close.
Currently, he said, TNMC, which is a subsidiary of BCL Limited, is carrying out a “bankable feasibility study” in conjunction with BCL. He revealed that a South African consultant, Worley Parsons, has been engaged to carry out the study.
“This work is carried out jointly with the expert site team made up of TNMC and BCL employees. The EIA or EMP is therefore only a small, but important part of this bankable feasibility study,” he said.
The project will involve construction of haulage or rail route to site, site clearing and construction of infrastructure to support mining activities, drilling and blasting, loading and hauling, watering of roads for dust suppression, maintenance of roads through grading and rehabilitation of sites at end of mining programme.