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May 2016
MODERN MINING
7
MINING News
Divisions of Lifting Solutions That Work.Following the recent successful testing
of the smelting characteristics of the ore
from its Agbaja deposit in Nigeria, ASX-
listed Kogi Iron says it will now progress
negotiations with a number of parties to
accelerate the development of the project.
The project will be developed and man-
aged through Kogi Iron’s 100-% owned
Nigerian-based subsidiary, KCM Mining.
It is intended to initially build a min-
ing operation alongside a 250 000 t/a
steel processing plant at Agbaja, located
200 km south of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital,
targeting domestic (Nigeria is currently
a net importer of steel products) and
European customers. The long-term plan
is to expand production up considerably
to 5 Mt/a.
The recent testing, conducted by South
Africa’s Mintek, determined the project has
the ability to produce three steel products
– sponge iron, pig iron and a steel prod-
uct containing 95 % Fe – on site using
the deposit’s unique oolitic ore and Kogi
Iron’s planned processing method. A four-
step processing method is envisaged. This
involves washing the iron ore product fol-
lowed by a reduction process, melting in
an electric arc furnace and, finally, blasting
with oxygen to produce the final product.
Kogi Iron’s tenements cover 150 km
2
but the initial focus will be on ground
covering 20 km
2
which hosts a JORC-
certified resource of 586 Mt. The orebody
is mostly at surface (maximum cover 8 m)
and is mineable by a free-digging open-pit
operation. The ore will be trucked to the
processing plant, which is located 1 km
away from the proposed pit.
With completion of the Mintek metal-
lurgical testing, Kogi Iron is now moving
to finalise the Definitive Feasibility Study
Kogi Iron to advance Agbaja project in Nigeria
Employees of Kogi Iron inspect drill core (photo: Kogi Iron).
(DFS), with completion expected by the
end of June 2016.
Kogi Iron has estimated the capital
cost of the project at US$200 million. The
biggest part of this will be spent on infra-
structure and the processing plant as the
costs of establishing the mining operation
are expected to be relatively modest.
Diamond miner appoints Chief Executive Officer
BlueRock has appointed Adam Waugh
as its CEO. His appointment follows the
announcement of the company’s strategic
review on 31 March 2016. He will be respon-
sible for overseeing the strategic review and
its subsequent implementation.
BlueRock is mining at Kareevlei, located
100 km north-west of Kimberley in the
Northern Cape. The property hosts five con-
firmed kimberlites.
Riaan Visser will become CEO of the
company’s sole operating subsidiary,
Kareevlei Mining, and, as a Director of
BlueRock, will retain responsibility for
finance matters and will continue to focus
on the operation of the Kareevlei mine.
“I am delighted that Adam has accepted
the appointment of CEO,” comments Paul
Beck, Chairman of BlueRock. “We recog-
nise that as we continue to grow we need
to assess continuously our management
needs. BlueRock is many times larger than
it was when we listed and these manage-
ment changes allow Riaan to concentrate
on ensuring the smooth operation of the
mine whilst Adam concentrates on deliver-
ing value to shareholders. In addition, we
are currently in the process of identifying an
experienced mine manager to complement
our existing team.”