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MODERN MINING
February 2014
MINING News
Mineral Commodities Limited (ASX: MRC)
reports it has joined the ranks of the
world’s mineral sands producers with the
first shipments of ultra-high grade zircon/
rutile concentrate from its recently com-
missioned US$16 million Tormin project,
located 400 km north-west of Cape Town
in South Africa.
The company recently loaded its first
concentrate for shipment to its offtake
partner, Wogen Pacific, and anticipates
ramping up towards 4 000 tonnes a month
during February 2014.
Commissioning of the beach mining
and processing infrastructure began in
October 2013. The processing plant is
operating to plan and grade reconcilia-
tion provides confidence of an annualised
production rate of 48 000 tonnes of zircon/
rutile concentrate (grading up to 80 %
zircon and 10 % rutile) which, at current
world prices, would generate in the order
of US$40-US$50 million per annum.
Since commissioning commenced, a
60 000 tonne high grade heavy mineral
stockpile has been created providing a six-
week buffer for the secondary concentrate
plant (SCP).
Mineral Commodities Limited CEO
Tormin ships its first concentrate
Andrew Lashbrooke comments: “In recent
months we have progressively and suc-
cessfully commissioned Tormin and we are
now generating all important revenue. We
look forward to the ramp up continuing.
“Tormin is a unique high grade deposit
– probably the highest in the world. The
run-of-mine grades we have seen of 86 %
Heavy Mineral Concentrate (HMC) are dou-
ble the resource grade. This has allowed us
to bypass the primary beach concentrator
and simply run it through spirals and the
secondary concentrator plant, reducing
costs and risk.
“In addition to the zircon/rutile con-
centrate, the company has to date
(mid-January) produced 9 000 tonnes of
ilmenite concentrate and 12 000 tonnes of
garnet concentrate. The ilmenite remains
the subject of ongoing sales off take dis-
cussions and is being stockpiled pending
the outcome, while delivery of the garnet
concentrate will commence in February
2014 under the terms of that agreement.”
The Tormin mine plan and engineering
processing design provides for primary
beach concentration of 1,2 Mt/a producing
approximately 48 000 tonnes of non-mag-
netic concentrate. Phase Two of the project
provides for further processing through
construction of a dry mineral separation
plant (MSP) to produce various magnetic
concentrates, including up to 125 000 t/a
of ilmenite and 100 000 t/a of garnet.
Aerial view of the Tormin site on South Africa’s West Coast . The operation recently loaded its first con-
centrate for shipment (photo: MRC).
A Primary Beach Concentrator (PBC) at the newmine
(photo: MRC).
Lucara outlines the year ahead at Karowe
Canada’s Lucara Diamond Corp has
provided operating performance and
capital expenditure guidance for 2014.
Lucara owns and operates the Karowe
diamond mine in Botswana.
Revenue of US$150 to US$160 mil-
lion is expected from the sale of 400 000
to 420 000 carats of diamonds in 2014,
including the assumption that the com-
pany will have two exceptional stone
tenders.
Karowe’s operating cash costs are
expected to be between US$31 to
US$33 per tonne treated. Mining is fore-
cast at 3,0-3,5 Mt of kimberlite of which
it is anticipated that 2,2-2,4 Mt will be
processed through the plant with the
remainder being stockpiled. Karowe is
forecast to increase waste mined during
2014, in line with the original feasibility
mine plan, as it opens up the full extent
of the South lobe. The Karowemine plan,
therefore, expects that more than 10 Mt
of waste will be stripped and stockpiled
or used to expand the tailings in 2014.
Building and commissioning of a
plant upgrade at Karowe to improve
large diamond recovery following con-
tinued occurrence of exceptional stones
and to enable sustainable processing of
harder ore in the south lobe is planned.
This is forecast at an expenditure of
US$45-US$50 million.
The Karowe mine has been in produc-
tion since May 2012 and has conducted
mining and processing operations
broadly in line with the feasibility study.
As of December 2013, 5,5 Mt of waste
had been removed to allow for the
extraction of 3,9 Mt of ore, 2,4 Mt of
which was processed, yielding 441 000
carats of diamonds.
