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reGionAL rounDup AFricA

Adavale’s Kabanga push

esults from a soil sampling survey on the We’ve gone from two to seven licences. We and nickel prices surging. However, both com-
Rcompany’s Kabanga Jirani nickel project are focusing in on targets with tight sampling, modity and jurisdiction were rocked in March.
has Adavale Resources Ltd confident it will particularly over the mag lows.” The LME nickel price was hit 15% after news
be drilling before mid-year on the Tanzanian The BHP/UNDP database contains rock, out of China suggested Tsingshan would be
project. soil and stream sediment sampling, geophys- moving into the nickel sulphate space, while
Assays from samples at Kabanga Jirani – ics, mapping and drilling results from work the death of Tanzanian President John Magu-
which surrounds the massive Kabanga nickel conducted between 1970 and 2008. fuli has plunged the East African country into
deposit in western Tanzania – revealed sev- Ritchie said the wealth of information avail- political uncertainty.
eral high priority targets with elevated nickel able meant Adavale had to be disciplined. Despite the setbacks, it appears likely
and copper readings coincident with mag- “We are being quite methodical in our ap- Adavale will remain committed to both.
netic lows and EM anomalies. proach. The aim of the game is drilling. We’re “We are in the right place and in the right
The programme is designed to infill the going to fast-track drilling but remain methodi- metal,” Ritchie said.
massive BHP/UNDP datasets Adavale ac- cal.” Fortunately for Adavale shareholders,
quired last year. The company plans another month of infill the company has a board with extensive in-
“Having access to that BHP data has taken soil sampling, followed by ground EM surveys country experience. Chairman Grant Pierce
a small junior like us and de-risked a lot of over the best targets. has spent more than two decades in Tanza-
greenfields work and reduced the timeline,” “From there, we will be able to make pre- nia first with Resolute Mining Ltd then Barrick
Adavale chief executive Allan Ritchie told Pay- cise drill targets and hopefully by the end of Gold Corp, while Rod Chittenden was Mag-
dirt TV last month. “It has given us the geo- the first half of the year we will be drilling.” nis Resources Ltd’s country manager for al-
physics and geochem we needed to target The year had started well for Adavale with most 10 years.
where to go but also acquire further licences. the investment climate in Tanzania improving
– Dominic Piper

Genmin’s seven-year

overnight success story

fter years without a new African iron ore feasibility work will be dedicated to logistics.
A story, the ASX has welcomed two in a mat- “Our focus this year is to advance Baniaka
ter of months with Genmin Ltd following Akora to PFS and FS,” Ariti said. “As part of that we
Resources Ltd onto the bourse in March. will finalise our infrastructure solutions in terms
Genmin listed after an oversubscribed $30 of access to the Trans-Gabon railway and the
million IPO. The company is led by managing multicommodity public port in Gabon and ac-
director Joe Ariti who has history on the con- cess to the hydropower scheme in the country.”
tinent, having successfully arranged the $338 Ariti said the project’s advanced status com-
million takeover of African Iron by Exxaro Ltd bined with market conditions meant a public
in 2012. listing was an obvious step for Genmin in 2021.
It was not long after closure of the Exxaro “The initial plan was to incubate them and remarkably stable country since gaining inde-
deal that Ariti brought the Genmin assets to- get them to a reasonable level of maturity with pendence in the 1960s with a strong grasp on
gether. private equity,” he said. “Now we’ve advanced investment protocols.
The company has been building the projects Baniaka to JORC status and its now at prelimi- “The maturity of the Government comes
since 2014, backed by private equity group nary feasibility study we felt, having de-risked from a long-established oil and gas industry,
Tembo Capital. The flagship asset is the Ban- it to that point in time, if we came to the ASX it established in the late 1960s,” he said. “Ga-
iaka project where Genmin has already de- would give us the opportunity to raise the capi- bon is also the second largest manganese
fined a JORC-compliant resource of 257.9mt tal in the future to develop the project. producer in the world. So, the Government is
@ 40.1% iron. “The sentiment towards iron ore was evi- quite mature in dealing with foreign investors,
A PFS has been started with Ariti hopeful denced by the demand we had for our IPO. whether its manganese or oil and gas and it’s
the funds raised through the IPO will take the We had about $30 million from retail and $35 very aware there is an emerging iron ore prov-
project through full feasibility study. million from institutional. That is thanks to the ince which we are taking the lead on.
“We are confident of producing a very good strong tailwinds of the iron ore price, which “It has a modern mining code, codifying your
lump product, around 62%, and a fines prod- is touching $US180/t, something we haven’t obligations and responsibilities and the ben-
uct of 63% so we would be able to deliver into seen since 2011. That sentiment has allowed efits which flow to you. When you meet and
that Chinese market,” Ariti said. “We think we a number of other juniors to raise capital and talk to members of government, they are very
could also put boutique high-grade cargos into some get into production.” aware of what foreign capital entails and how
the European market as well.” Developing iron ore projects in Africa can fickle it can be and the type of environment you
With the resource already defined enough prove difficult given geopolitical shifts on the have to create for it.”
to support a 10-year initial mine life, the bulk of continent but Ariti said Gabon had proven a
– Dominic Piper

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