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MODERN MINING
June 2017
MINING News
AIM-listed Rainbow has provided a further
update on its Gakara rare earth project
in Burundi. Gakara is one of the highest
grade rare earth element mining projects
globally with an estimated in-situ grade of
47-67 % Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO).
Mining work at Gakara commenced in
April 2017, focusing on the initial mining
site at Gasagwe. This will be Rainbow’s pri-
mary source of ROM ore during 2017/18.
The labour force has concentrated on
stripping overburden at the surface of
Gasagwe, thereby exposing the targeted
‘main vein’ to a height of at least 1 m along
its current exposed strike length. The
uncovered vein will be relatively simple to
extract and stockpile as required.
There have also been discoveries of sev-
eral previously unrecorded veins which will
also be extracted and added to the ROM
stockpile prior to the commissioning of the
processing plant at Kabezi.
Rainbow reports that work continues
on the improvements to the approximately
2,3 km long Gasagwe access road from the
Mining starts at Gakara’s first production site
Mining work at Gakara began in April 2017, focusing on the initial mining site at Gasagwe (photo: Rainbow Rare Earths).
nearest town of Mutambu using local con-
tractors. The road upgrade is required for
the haul trucks to transport ROM ore to the
processing plant, hence there is no impact
on current mining operations during its
construction.
By the end of May 2017, the number
of local workers trained and inducted by
Rainbow’s team had doubled to 80 from
the initial 40. As well as being trained to
assist with mining activities, the newwork-
ers will also be assigned to exploration and
road maintenance roles.
Rainbow’s planned exploration activities
over the coming months will incorporate
both greenfield and brownfield areas. The
focus of the greenfield work will be on
areas within the company’s existing explo-
ration licence, which have previously not
been explored. The company will use tech-
niques that have proved successful during
previous work in other areas.
Brownfield work will focus on areas
within Rainbow’s mining licence where
significant rare earth discoveries have
already been made, with the purpose of
delineating further tonnage for future
mining. Tasks to be undertaken include
trenching, mapping, gravity surveying,
and a trenching/terracing prospecting
programme with a view to uncovering,
accurately mapping, and sampling the
in-situ sources of large bastnaesite blocks
previously discovered on the surface in the
Kiyenzi area.
Rainbow’s ROMore processing plant will
be situated at Kabezi, 10 km due south of
Bujumbura and approximately 20 km from
the company’s mining areas. The site com-
prises relatively flat ground, close to the
shore of Lake Tanganyika, and is located on
a main asphalt road. This will provide ease
of access for the container trucks collecting
rare earth concentrate for export.
Rainbow’s selected EPCM contrac-
tor, Obsideo Consulting of South Africa,
continues to make good progress with
equipment procurement and expects the
first shipment of containers to leave South
Africa during June.
Big increase in output at Frontier operation
Frontier mine, owned by Eurasian Resources
Group (ERG), delivered more than 107 kt of
contained copper in concentrate in 2016,
an increase of 35 % on 2015 output.
Frontier – originally built by First
Quantum – is ERG’s flagship mine in the
DRC and is the cornerstone of the Group’s
copper business in Africa. In 2016 the plant
improved its performance across many key
indicators.
A revised production plan was launched
by ERG in late 2015 to increase long-term
copper production at Frontier by improving
the efficiency and effectiveness of its oper-
ating model.
The growth was the outcome of con-
siderable operational improvements and
investment while the mine also changed
the way it deployed contractors. Major ben-
efits were realised from Q2 2016 onwards,
resulting in a steady supply of copper ore,
improved plant feed grades and plant
throughput tonnages.
John Robertson, Frontier Mine President
– General Manager, said: “The production
figures at our flagship Frontier mine are
very encouraging and I am proud of what
the team has achieved. This is a major step
forward for the Group and supports ERG
Africa’s strategy to become a regional cop-
per and cobalt champion. Our people are
ERG’s greatest asset and their ability to plan,
embrace change and deliver solid results is
commendable.
“The achievements at Frontier mine play
a key part in forming a balanced produc-
tion system alongside ERG’s copper and
cobalt asset portfolio in Africa, which also
includes Boss Mining, Comide, Chambishi
Metals, and the Metalkol Roan Tailings
Reclamation project.”