Modern Mining November 2016

CONSULTANTS/ PROJECTS HOUSES

are we really moving into high gear with it,” says Duke. “PMDE is in many ways unique. It is entirely focused on small to medium-sized mining projects, which are too small to attract conventional funding or, alternatively, which have failed or are in distress for one reason or another. Our mission with PDME is to get these projects into profitable operation. The mecha- nism we intend using is some type of build, operate and transfer or BOT contract arrange- ment, although there are other possibilities. Obviously, on the technical aspects of projects, we will work closely with Sound Mining and indeed other partners, who we’ve already iden- tified and who are prepared to be flexible and think out of the box in terms of addressing risk. “We’ve chosen Mauritius as a base as it offers many advantages as a gateway into Africa and we’re in the process of setting up a perma- nent office there. We’re also establishing a fund which will invest in the projects we choose to advance. We already have a number of projects in our portfolio that we’re looking at, mostly in gold and copper, and we would expect to be developing some of these in the shorter rather than the longer term,” he concludes. 

feature In Zimbabwe PMDE is working with these small-scale miners.

36  MODERN MINING  November 2016