MM October 2015 Final revise

13 / 56

October 2015MODERN MINING11
MINING News
Omnia appoints newManaging
Director of BME
JSE-listed Omnia Holdings has
appointed Joseph Keenan as the
new MD of its mining explosives
division, BME, as from 1 September
2015. BME is one of the leading sup-
pliers of explosives and services to
the African mining, quarrying and
construction industries and has
operations in 14 countries across
the African continent.
Says Rod Humphris, CEO of the
Omnia Group:“Keenan is an accom-
plished international executive who
brings over 20 years of global experience in the explosives industry
to our Group. He has held executive and non-executive positions in
North and South America, Africa and Australia. He has a successful
track record in the explosives sector of managing high performance
teams, being involved in start-up projects, developments, listings, stra-
tegic alliances, investments and global equity holdings.”
Keenan’s most recent roles have been at Columbine Group in the
USA, Pacific Hydro in Australia and, prior to that, Orica in Chile. He has
chaired the ANU Centre for Latin American Studies in Australia and
Peru Nitrates in Latin America, as well as serving on the boards of
PHC Energy Advisory Board, and two explosives JVs in Venezuela and
Panama.
He has a BSc Geology from Laurentian University in Canada, an
MBA from Edinburgh Business School in the UK, and has completed
post graduate programmes at Insead Singapore and Harvard USA
Business Schools. 
Positive report on Dugbe
hydropower options
UK-based, AIM-listed Hummingbird Resources, which is developing
gold projects in West Africa, has announced a positive preliminary
report from Knight Piesold Consulting (KP) for the proposed hydro-
electric power (HEP) plant in south-east Liberia, which would be
located approximately 10 km from its 4,2 Moz Dugbe gold project.
Dugbe is forecast to have an average power demand of 16 MW.
This significant development follows the signature of a
Collaboration Agreement for the funding and development of
the HEP signed in April 2015 with IFC InfraVentures, the IFC Global
Infrastructure Project Development Fund, and Aldwych International,
a leading energy company active in Africa.
The report demonstrates a range of hydropower options that
would be highly beneficial in the development of a sustainable and
low-cost source of power for the Dugbe project, as well as the south-
east Liberian region. It assessed four run-of-river hydropower options
ranging from 15 MW to 30 MW with varying intakes.
The Dugbe project is located within the Birimian Basin, the world’s
second largest gold producing region, characterised by exceptionally
large, homogenous grade deposits. 
baumaMining16-Besucher_90x260_E_AV.indd 1 30.09.15 20:01