May 2014
MODERN MINING
43
COMPANIES
stage release not just the small diamonds but
also the big ones.”
In West Africa a client that stands out is
AIM-listed Stellar Diamonds, whose CEO is
Karl Smithson, a well-known personality in
diamond mining who earlier in his career spent
10 years with De Beers. PPM completed scoping
studies on Stellar’s Tongo Dyke-1 and Droujba
projects in Sierra Leone last year. In the case
of Tongo, the study focused on approximately
682 000 carats of the Dyke-1 resource to a depth
of 300 m from surface over an initial 13-year
life of mine while the Droujba study identified
a three-year life of mine open-pit opportu-
nity. Based on PPM’s conclusions, Stellar has
decided to prioritise Tongo and PPM – while
acknowledging that there are no certainties – is
hoping for further involvement as the project
moves forward. PPM will also be completing
the resource definition for Stellar’s Baoulé pro
ject in Guinea.
Also in Sierra Leone, PPM recently col-
laborated with MSA Group on a pre-feasibility
study on Nimini’s flagship Komahun gold proj-
ect, which could be developed to become Sierra
Leone’s first underground gold mine.
In Côte d’Ivoire, PPM has completed a
pre-feasibility study on Taurus Gold’s Afema
project, located 120 km east of Abidjan.
According to Taurus, the first phase of the
project will see the development of a US$23
million, 40 koz/a, open-pit mine with a five
year life.
Quite apart from projects for clients, PPM
occasionally devotes some of its energies to
in-house R&D – a case in point being its cur-
rent initiative to develop a new DMS plant.
“This initiative has not yet reached the point
of commercialisation but it is well advanced
and looking good,” says Clarke. “Essentially,
we’ve taken a standard DMS design and taken
away everything that we think is unneces-
sary. If we thought we could get away with a
400 mm pipe, for example, we’ve gone down to
250 mm – we’ve literally created a unit which
gives a new meaning to the term ‘fit for pur-
pose’. We’ve learned a lot during this exercise
and are quite convinced that most DMS plants
are grossly over-designed. The prototype has
already been tested with the only real problem
encountered being a sump design that was good
in concept but proved to be impractical in the
field. Incidentally, we are working very closely
on the testing with Rockwell Diamonds, who is
one of our established clients.”
The DMS can be made very small and
compact or large enough for fairly substantial
projects. “We could go down to 1 t/h or as high
as 100 t/h in terms of capacity,” says Clarke.
“In the former case, we would be aiming at the
exploration market where there is a need for
highly mobile units that can be easily moved
from site to site on the back of a bakkie or a
light truck.”
On the future strategic direction of PPM,
Clarke says the company is very happy with
the niche it has carved out in the market and
is not proposing any major changes in the way
it works and the markets it targets. “We are,
however, looking at strengthening our BBBEE
credentials,” he states. “PPM is currently
owned by seven shareholders, four of them
major ones, but we’ve made a business decision
to broaden the existing employee share owner-
ship scheme as well as engage with a strategic
BEE partner and we expect to finalise a deal by
the end of the year. We need to ensure the lon-
gevity of the company and this will be a major
step in meeting this goal.”
Above:
Part of the plant at
the Marropino tantalum
project in Mozambique.
PPM’s contract for this mine
was one of the biggest it has
ever undertaken.
Left:
Drilling at the Afema
gold project in Côte d’Ivoire.
PPMwas responsible for
the pre-feasibility study on
Afema.
