32
MODERN MINING
January 2017
Top projects
TIN
B
isie lies in North Kivu Province,
180 km west-northwest of Goma
on Lake Kivu and roughly 40 km
from Walikale, the nearest settle-
ment of any size. Although it is
easily accessible from Goma by helicopter (the
flight is roughly an hour’s duration), access by
road is much more difficult – and, until recent-
ly, was not even possible.
Recalls Boris Kamstra, Alphamin’s CEO:
“When we first engaged with the project, the
only way to get in from the Goma-Walikale-
Kisangani road, a distance of about 35 km, was
to walk – largely through dense, very beauti-
ful equatorial forest. Even getting to Walikale
was – and still is – a mission as the road from
Goma traverses a distance of 270 km or so,
with 45 km of this being in poor condition.
At this stage, fixed wing light aircraft cannot
Possibly no other mining project better exemplifies both the
potential rewards of developing a mine in Africa as well as
the huge obstacles that sometimes have to be overcome to
get into production than Bisie – a veritable mountain of tin
located in the depths of the DRC that is one of the richest
(in terms of grade) and biggest undeveloped deposits of
the metal to be found anywhere in the world. The company
planning to create a modern, commercial-scale mine at
Bisie is TSX-V-listed Alphamin Resources Corp. It has made
considerable progress on the project which is now essentially
ready to enter construction once funding is finalised.
Boris Kamstra, CEO of Alphamin Resources.
Bisie –
a tin project without