14 / 60
12
MODERN MINING
July 2017
MINING News
Governments’ new US$1 trillion ‘Silk Road – One Belt, One Road’
(Silk Road) initiative.
Detailed engineering and design services are to commence
immediately while the EPCM agreement, a final estimate and
funding is progressed. Selected and critical equipment is to be
sourced from BGRIMM, an internationally recognised flotation
equipment engineer.
Walkabout’s technical input and interests will be managed
under an Owners Representation Agreement by Dr Evan Kirby, and
a South African based engineering group.
Walkabout is fast tracking the development of the Lindi Jumbo
project to take advantage of forecast market conditions for flake
graphite deposits with high ratios of Large and Jumbo flakes. The
company currently holds 70 % of four licences at Lindi Jumbo with
an option to acquire the remaining 30 % share.
“Jinpeng is a highly competent and experienced engineer-
ing company,” comments Trevor Benson, Executive Chairman of
Walkabout Resources. “This EPCM and deferred payment funding
is an optimal outcome for our fast-tracked development strategy.
This funding model should significantly reduce the project capital
required by the company.”
The project is located in south-east Tanzania approximately
60 km inland from the coast and 200 km from the Port of Mtwara.
It adjoins the Nachu graphite project of Magnis Resources, also
listed on the ASX.
Mining will be by open-pit methods. Weathered ore and waste
will be excavated using a hydraulic shovel and loaded onto 30-t
dump trucks for hauling out of the pit to the ROM stockpile, low
grade stockpiles or waste dumps. Where the weathered mate-
rial requires ripping by dozer before excavating, this will be done
using a tracked dozer. Fresh ore and waste will be drilled and
blasted before being loaded and hauled in a similar manner.
A graphite processing flowsheet has been developed based on
an extensive metallurgical test work programme. The proposed
flowsheet includes primary and secondary crushing, scrubbing,
milling (via a primary rod mill), sequential rougher/scavenger flo-
tation, regrind cleaner flotation, filtration and concentrate drying,
Walkabout signs ‘Heads of Agreement’with Jinpeng
screening of final product concentrate and
bagging of concentrate.
The plant has been sized for a feed of
300 kt/a of ore with a grade of >16 % TGC to
produce a graphite flake concentrate with an
average grade of 97 % TGC.
A Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) cen-
trally managed from Johannesburg by
independent mining consultancy Bara
International was completed in February
2017. It confirmed the project to be techni-
cally sound with excellent economic returns
even at potential softening price regimes for
premium graphite flake material. Payback
period for the project – which has an esti-
mated upfront capex of US$38,7 million – is
less than two years. The DFS was based on
an annual production of 40 000 tonnes of
graphite concentrate.
Helio acquisition will boost New Luika’s resources
AIM-listed Shanta Gold and TSX-V-listed
Helio Resource Corp have entered into a
definitive arm’s-length arrangement agree-
ment which, subject to Helio shareholder
approval and British Columbia Supreme
Court approval, will see Shanta acquiring
all of the issued and outstanding common
shares of Helio.
The deal will mean that Shanta will
acquire Helio’s SMP project which is imme-
diately adjacent to Shanta’s operating New
Luika Gold Mine (NLGM) near Mbeya in
Tanzania.
Helio’s resource consists of an NI 43-101
compliant gold resource totalling 635 koz
of gold at an average grade of 2,4 g/t. All of
these resources are located within 20 kmof
the existing NLGM processing plant.
The JORC-compliant resources include:
an open-pit indicated gold resource of
332 koz at 1,8 g/t and an inferred resource
of 17 koz at 1,6 g/t; and an underground
indicated gold resource of 258 koz at 4,9 g/t
and an inferred resource of 27 koz at 3,8 g/t.
The acquisitionwill result in an increase in
Shanta’s gold resource ounces of 77 % from
824 koz at 1,9 g/t to 1 459 koz at 2,09 g/t.
Shanta intends to incorporate these
resources into its future mine plan and
explore the potential to expand the NLGM
production rate incorporating these addi-
tional resources as soon as possible.
Drilling at Lindi Jumbo in 2016 (photo: Walkabout Resources).
Walkabout Resources, an Australian junior listed on the ASX, has
signed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with a private mid-sized
engineering company, Yantai Jinpeng Mining Machinery Co
Ltd (Jinpeng) in China, to engineer, manage and build the Lindi
Jumbo process plant and shared infrastructure package on site in
Tanzania. Jinpeng has extensive experience in designing, manu-
facturing and building graphite flotation facilities in China and
building plants in Africa.
The Engineering, Procurement and ConstructionManagement
(EPCM) service contract will include a Deferred Payment Option
by means of a fast-track application already underway, which
provides access to funding provided through the Chinese