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November 2015
MODERN MINING
41
CONSULTANTS/
PROJECT HOUSES
feature
Mineral’s RHA tungsten project while in Spain
it has just started work on a BFS for a uranium
project.
Pooley notes that in the case of many of
its clients Bara is steadily travelling along the
project development path with them. “We’re
finding we’re starting with concept and scop-
ing studies and then being re-appointed for
further work as the project proceeds, which we
take as a compliment to the quality of the work
we do,” he says. “A good example here would
be Armadale’s Mpokoto open-pit gold project
in Katanga in the DRC. We originally carried
out the scoping study and are currently well
advanced with the DFS. We have an excellent
relationship with Armadale and, of course,
we’re hopeful that we’ll continue to participate
in the project through construction and into the
operational phase.”
Bara maintains good relationships with sev-
eral other consultancy companies, the main
ones being geological consultancies MSA and
An African project which
Bara has been – and
continues to be – closely
involved with is the 678 000
ounce Mpokoto gold project
in Katanga in the DRC.
The Mpokoto site is seen
here. Armadale Capital, the
developer, has said that it is
hoping to be in production
in 2016.
Shango Solutions. “We don’t employ any geolo-
gists ourselves so it is useful if we can partner
with specialists in this area where necessary,
with their skills complementing our own,”
Pooley observes.
On the path ahead for Bara, Pooley and
Willis agree that while they are looking to
grow the consultancy, this will only be within
certain limits. “We don’t want to grow to the
point where it’s no longer fun and where we
can’t maintain the personalised ‘hands-on’
service we’ve so far managed to deliver to cli-
ents,” says Pooley. “If we get to the point where
we need an HR department, then we’ll know
we’ve gone too far! We founded Bara precisely
because we didn’t want to be part of a big cor-
porate environment and we haven’t changed
this thinking. Our trademarks are individual
attention to clients and a low overhead opera-
tion and we intend maintaining this approach
in the future.”
Report by Arthur Tassell