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July 2016
MODERN MINING
9
MINING News
ASX-listed Tiger Resources has commis-
sioned a study by independent consultant
Mintrex Pty Ltd to investigate the eco-
nomic viability of producing cobalt at its
Kipoi project. Kipoi is located 75 km north-
west of Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga
Province, in the central part of the Katanga
Copperbelt in the DRC.
Tiger has a resource of 40 400 tonnes of
measured and indicated and 5 600 tonnes
of inferred cobalt across the Kipoi Central,
Kipoi North, Kileba and Judeira deposits
at its Kipoi project. There are additional
cobalt resources at the nearby Sase Central
deposit, where Tiger has defined 5 000
tonnes of indicated and 1 000 tonnes of
inferred cobalt.
The Mintrex study is expected to take
three months to complete and will exam-
ine Tiger’s potential processing pathways,
with Mintrex to recommend options for
future metallurgical testwork.
Tiger Chief Executive Officer Michael
Griffiths said the growing global demand
for cobalt had encouraged the company
to examine if it could economically convert
its resources to a saleable product.
“Cobalt is used in many industries, but
its demand is increasing mostly due to its
use in batteries and super alloys,” he said.
“Tiger is in a position to capitalise on this
Tiger Resources commissions Kipoi cobalt study
The Kipoi project is located in the heart of the Katanga Copperbelt (photo: Tiger Resources).
with our known resource at Kipoi and a
strong operating and production record.”
Tiger currently produces approximately
26 000 tonnes of copper cathode per year
from the Kipoi project and is currently
undertaking debottlenecking works at the
plant to increase production capacity to
32 500 tonnes per year.
Frontier files technical report on graphite project
Canada’s Frontier Rare Earths has filed
a Canadian National Instrument 43-101
compliant technical report on SEDAR
incorporating a maiden mineral resource
estimate for its 70 %-owned Lurio graphite
project in Mozambique.
The project is located approximately
80 km south-west of the port city of Pemba
in Cabo Delgado Province and contains a
number of known graphite sequences. As
previously reported by Frontier, a series of
phased, systematic exploration activities
was conducted on the project up to the
end of 2014, including geological mapping,
rock-chip sampling, trenching, mineral-
ogical analysis, ground geophysical surveys
and metallurgical test work.
Previous work on the project was
predominantly focused on the Nipacue
graphite sequence, which was considered
to be the most promising of the sequences
in the project area. In 2015 the most pro-
spective of the graphite layers in the
Nipacue sequence, the Nipacue Outer (NPO)
layer, was evaluated by means of a reverse
circulation (RC) and diamond drilling (DD)
programme in order to provide data for the
preparation of a mineral resource estimate.
Three areas on the NPO layer were selected
for drilling, known as Nipacue North,
Nipacue Central and Nipacue South.
The MSA Group was commissioned to
prepare the estimates for Nipacue North,
Nipacue Central and Nipacue South and an
Independent Technical Report for the proj-
ect based on total graphitic carbon (TGC)
assays from the RC and DD drill holes, den-
sity measurements from cores of the 22 DD
drill holes, and data from mineralogical,
metallurgical and other exploration work
carried out on the project.
The total indicated resource is estimated
at 26,4 Mt at 7,34 % TGC for 1,94 Mt of con-
tained graphite while the total inferred
resource is 29,7 Mt at 6,76 %TGC for 2,01 Mt
of contained graphite.