The Grande C?te Mineral Sands Project

摘要

The Grande C?te Mineral Sands Deposit (GCMSP) is located on a coastal mobile dune systemrnin Senegal on the west coast of Africa. Senegal is a stable, democratic republic, having gainedrnits independence from France in 1960. It has a population of about 12.5 million people.rnThe dunes begin about 25 km north-east of Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, and extend northwardsrnfor more than 140 km. The mineralised dune system averages about 2 km wide with some areasrnextending to up to 4.5 km wide.rnMineral Deposits limited (MDL), a Melbourne-based company with over 60 years operationalrnexperience in mineral sand mining in Australia, holds, through its Senegalese subsidiaryrnMDL Senegal SARL (MDLS), a 25-year Mining Concession covering the deposits.rnThe main heavy mineral (HM) areas identifi ed to date are, from south to north, Mboro,rnFass Boye, Diogo and Lompoul. Within the Mining Concession there is potential to identifyrnadditional resources beyond the limits of present drilling. The dunes are mobile or semi fi xed, palernyellow in colour and overlie older white marine sands. The dunes range between 5 m and 30 m inrnheight and the mineralised zones, which are essentially fl at-lying, average around 15 m in thickness.rnThe mineralisation consists, principally of ilmenite with accessory zircon, rutile and leucoxene.rnZircon and ilmenite are the main commodities of interest.rnIndependent consultants AMC estimated mineral resources for the four main deposits in 2006rnof 1330 Mt of sand averaging 2.0 per cent HM at a cut-off grade of 1.5 per cent HM. At a cut-offrngrade of one per cent the resources were 3200 Mt averaging 1.5 per cent HM. All of the estimate wasrnclassifi ed as Inferred Resources under the 2004 Australasian Code for Reporting of ExplorationrnResults, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC, 2004).rnSubsequent completion of infi ll drilling, sampling and assaying of the initial mining area, centredrnat Diogo, was completed in 2008, enabling a fi nal dredge path to be designed and ore reservesrnestimated, based on a JORC compliant Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource.rnInfi ll drilling is continuing in the Lompoul and the results of this campaign will be included in thernJORC compliant data base by AMC in April 2010 to enable the 15 per cent year dredge path and minernplan to be fi nalised.rnDevelopment studies have shown that the project can be optimised as a dredging operation, withrnmineralised sand being treated in a conventional fl oating spiral preconcentrator, wet concentratorrnand dry mineral separation plant. Engineering work now substantially completed by Ausenco Limitedrn(Ausenco) has developed the combination of some existing plant from MDL’s past operations, andrnnew plant for the complete process from dredging to fi nal product separation and grading. Testworkrnon a series of bulk samples has determined that the project can yield a high quality zircon productrnand an ilmenite product along with minor rutile and leucoxene.rnWork to date indicates a likely output of around 80 000 t of zircon in various quality streamsrn(Primary, Secondary, Standard and Foundry Grades), around 550 000 t of ilmenite plus aroundrn15000 t of rutile and around 12 000 t of leucoxene/secondary ilmenite. Planned zircon output wouldrnrepresent around 7per cent of the total world production, which would make the GCZ&IP a signifi cantrnproducer on a world scale.rnThe studies have indicated capital costs to be in the range of US$400 M total operating cost (afterrncompletion of ramp-up) of around US$50 M - $55 M/a. Revenue is expected to be in the rangern$127 M - $157 M/a.