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MODERN MINING
May 2014
MINING News
Market briefing on Mozambique’s newmining law
The final draft of Mozambique’s newmining
law is expected to be approved during the
current sitting of parliament.
Themajor sections of the newmining law
focus on key issues relating to new mining
titles including mining treatment and min-
ing processing, new timing requirements
for exploration and prospecting and min-
ing concession licences, restrictions on the
transfer of mining rights and titles, the new
tax regime, and the effect on existing rights.
Additionally, provisions have been put in
place for the establishment of a local con-
tent policy that will see further acceleration
through 2014.
Since the drafting of the new min-
ing law began, the Minister of Minerals in
Mozambique has been quoted as saying
“The state should have a percentage of par-
ticipation in consortia or companies that
have mining concessions to explore mineral
resources that are considered strategic.”
Some of the changes have radical and
far reaching consequences for all compa-
nies invested into the mining and resource
space.
The new legislation should have been
passed by the time an upcoming auction
of coal mining concessions takes place in
June. The concessions will be in the prov-
inces of Tete and Niassa.
A one-day market briefing on the leg-
islation organised by AIE will take place in
Johannesburg on the 8 July. Further details
are available from website
-
fex.com
or by calling 081-777-0028.
Kenmare Resources, which owns and oper-
ates the Moma titanium minerals mine on
the coast of north-eastern Mozambique,
has issued a trading update with respect to
the period from 1 January 2014 to 23 April
2014 and covering production and ship-
ments from 1 January 2014 to 31 March
2014 (Q1 2014).
Ore mined was up 81 % to 7,54 Mt (Q1
2013: 4,15 Mt) while production of heavy
mineral concentrate (HMC) increased by
51 % to 287 000 tonnes (Q1 2013: 189 800
tonnes). Production of ilmenite was up
Moma ore production up by 81 per cent
53 % to 210 800 tonnes (Q1 2013: 137 500
tonnes) and production of primary zir-
con increased by 35 % to 7 700 tonnes
(Q1 2013: 5 700 tonnes). Sales of finished
products amounted to 193 900 tonnes, an
increase of 299 % on the Q1 2013 figure of
48 500 tonnes.
“The first quarter of the year saw a
significant increase in mining and pro-
duction compared to Q1 2013 following
the completion of the expansion of Moma
in late 2013,” comments Michael Carvill,
Kenmare’s MD. “Q1 has historically been
our lowest production quarter due to
the issues associated with power sup-
ply in the Southern Hemisphere summer
months. Consequently, we are pleased
to have reached an agreement to bring
a diesel-powered electricity generating
plant on site as an auxiliary power source,
providing the Mineral Separation Plant
(MSP) with increased security of power
supply to more effectively utilise our new
expanded facilities. With the reschedul-
ing of debt payments completed and
the problem of power fluctuation hav-
ing been mitigated, we look forward to
reporting further progress on lowering
unit operating costs and ramping up pro-
duction to nameplate capacity.”
On the subject of power supply,
Kenmare says the MSP is more sensitive
to voltage fluctuations than the mining
and wet concentrator plants and that it
is continuing to improve MSP operating
procedures and equipment to minimise
downtime caused by these fluctuations.
In addition, a rental contract has been
signed to supply a 7,5 MW diesel-pow-
ered electric generating plant to the
mine, which will supply stable power to
the MSP during the Southern Hemisphere
summer months when most voltage sta-
bility problems occur. The generating
plant is expected to be available for use
on site from early H2 2014 and will also
be available on standby in case of any
unanticipated failure of the transmission
system during the rest of the year.
Dredges and WCP A (one of two floating wet concentrator plants) at the Moma mine (photo: Kenmare Resources).
