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May 2017
MODERN MINING
25
RARE EARTHS
A typical example of ore
from the Gakara project.
with Gashirwe starting up in month 13.
Assuming successful completion of the trial
mining phase, Rainbow intends ramping up
production to 5 000 t/a (420 tonnes per month)
of concentrate.
The process flowsheet for the beneficiation
plant is based on physical gravity separation
only (there is no need for hazardous chemicals)
and will see the ROM ore being subjected to
crushing, screening, jigging and shaking table
processes to produce concentrate. The plant
will have a capacity of 10 t/h but be capable of
ramping up to 5 000 t/a. Rainbow has recently
awarded the EPCM contract for the design, sup-
ply and construction of the plant to Obsideo
Consulting of South Africa with the agreed
commissioning date being in the fourth quarter
of this year.
As this article was being written, prepara-
tion for mining at the first production site,
Gasagwe, was well advanced with the con-
struction of haulage and access roads, as well
as basic infrastructure, in progress and a locally
recruited labour force in place and ready to
start on the extraction of ROM ore from the high
grade veins.
To implement the project, Rainbow has
assembled a strong team which includes
Braam Jankowitz as Project Manager, Gilbert
Midende as General Manager, Cesare Morelli
as Technical Director and Joël Ntungwanayo as
Chief Geologist.
Jankowitz is a geologist (he has an MSc
Geology) but is also well versed in mine
management having served, prior to joining
Rainbow, as GM of the New Luika gold mine
in Tanzania while Midende has a doctorate in
geology and has served as the Burundi Director
of Geology and Mines and also as Burundi’s
Minister of Mines. Morelli, also a geologist, was
previously Minerals Exploration Manager for
Africa with BHP Billiton while Ntungwanayo
has a background with BHP Billiton and the
Burundi Geological Survey.
Rainbow enjoys strong support from the
Government of Burundi, which is keen to estab-
lish a formal mining industry in the country and
which has a 10 % free carry in the project, and
from local communities. While the mine will
be relatively small in scale, the manual mining
methods to be employed mean that the work-
force may eventually number in the region of
200 people – a welcome number of job opportu-
nities in an area where most people depend on
subsistence farming for their livelihoods.
A strength of the project is that the Gakara
‘basket’ is weighted heavily towards the mag-
net rare earths, including neodymium and
praseodymium which now account for 70 %
of annual global REE sales due to their use in
equipment such as motors, generators, wind
turbines and electric vehicles. Many commen-
tators are predicting strong growth in demand
for rare earths over the coming decade, with
some seeing prices quadrupling by 2025.
According to Rainbow, the contained value
of Gakara concentrate samples (on a separated
basis) is in the region of US$6 000/tonne as
against operating costs – in the first year – of
US$810/tonne and transport, marketing and
royalty costs of US$280/tonne.
Gakara will almost certainly be the first of
the current crop of African rare earth projects
to enter operation. Most, if not all, of the oth-
ers are burdened by huge capex costs (although
they are many times larger in scale than Gakara)
and appear to be years rather than months away
from production. To give examples of the capi-
tal expenditures required, the just released
BFS on the Ngualla project of Peak Resources
in Tanzania estimates the capex at US$356 mil-
lion (which includes a refinery in the UK) while
the 2015 PFS on the Zandkopsdrift project of
Frontier Rare Earths in South Africa estimated
a capex of more than half a billion dollars just
for the first phase of development.
As Eales says, “Gakara is a niche project
which can’t really be compared with anything
else. The combination of high grade and a tiny
capex make it unique. Although we’re not in
a race with anyone else to be first to market,
it does indeed look as though we will be the
first of the African projects currently under
development to enter production. We have a
clear road ahead and are confident that we will
achieve first sales of concentrate by the end of
this year.”
Photos courtesy of Rainbow Rare Earths
Rainbow enjoys
strong support
from the
Government of
Burundi, which is
keen to establish
a formal mining
industry in the
country.