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ADu ReVIeW

First nel and nickel via Enterprise, is the single
biggest investment made in Zambia since
the Kariba Dam 50 years ago.
A total of 223,000t copper was pro-
Quantum’s duced from Sentinel in 2018.
As the build up at Sentinel continues,
First Quantum is weighing up its options
at Kansanshi.
tax checks gins to a point where there are really no
“If you start squeezing those profit mar-

Mike Christie high investor returns then actually you
stop the capital inflow and that is for many
ambia is not as far offside with its min- if they wanted big money investments to of the mining companies in Zambia. That
Zing sector as Tanzania, however, First be made in their respective countries. either means they pull the pin on explor-
Quantum Minerals Ltd exploration director First Quantum has been a long-time ing and developing their ore,” Christie
Mike Christie expressed some concern as copper producer in Zambia, with Kansan- said.
to which way the country was heading. shi in operation for the past 12 years. “We have some decisions to make
A new royalty regime, plus a number Having started as a high-grade, high- about whether we should expand and
of taxes and levies were implemented by margin mine, the reality is that at some go to the next phase on Kansanshi; it’s
the Government in January this year; the point the grade at Kansanshi will dip and hundreds of millions of dollars in invest-
third round of changes in 10 years. First Quantum will be faced with investing ment to try and continue our production
“Having been through a number of more to secure the mine’s future. at those levels as we go into deeper and
these changes before, we are continuing “With Kansanshi; it has been a very lower grade areas of that mine.
to have constructive discussions with the high-margin mine but it is getting lower so “In order to double the size of the flo-
Zambian Government on what is a sus- we are talking about mining 0.6% copper tation plant for the sulphide deposits at
tainable tax regime for the future,” Chris- instead of 1.2% copper, so the margin is depth we need a return on our investment
tie said. [going to be] much, much lower. There and if you change the royalty regimes
“It is not Tanzania; Tanzania has really are other mines in Zambia which are low- to the point where that return isn’t there,
killed the golden goose... Zambia is not er grade, Sentinel is 0.5%, so they have to then we’ll basically keep running that
in that position, but certainly the goose is be built on an enormous scale to get the mine down over time. It has a long life, but
being strangled.” economies of scale.” as the grade gets lower you produce less
Christie urged African governments to The $2 billion Trident project, whereby and less copper.”
provide stability in policy and regulations copper can be processed through Senti-
– Mark Andrews

Cardinal shapes up at Namdini

ardinal Resources Ltd will look to junior in the current environment. “We’ve drilled 7 moz gold where there
Cdefy the odds in Ghana once again in Cardinal managing director Archie Ko- was meant to be none and we’ve done it
the next three years. imtsidis told delegates at Africa Down in five years,” Koimtsidis said.
The company has already made one of Under the company plans to be pouring “According to the text books, gold
the best greenfields gold discoveries in a gold from Namdini in the second half of shouldn’t be here, but we found it; here
region of Ghana thought to be bereft of 2022, while regional exploration played it is.”
gold and now it is shaping up to develop out in the background. Cardinal’s PFS was based on a 9.5
a gold mine from scratch; a rarity for a In the last nine months, North Ameri- mtpa project producing 907,000oz @
can interest in Cardinal has reached 1.31 g/t from the 2.5-year long starter pit
40% of the registry, while the company operation.
recently appointed former Barrick Gold Post the initial start-up phase, Namdini
Corp chief operating officer Dave An- is primed to last for 14 years producing
thony in the same capacity at Namdini, 294,000 ozpa @ 1.14 g/t gold at AISC of
north-east Ghana. $US769/oz, with estimated development
Anthony has more than 30 years’ in- costs of $US414 million.
dustry experience and has designed, A pre-tax cash flow of $US1.4 billion,
constructed, optimised and operated 12 post-tax NPV (5% discount) of $US586
mines, half of which were with Barrick, million and post-tax IRR of 38% were
including four in Africa. other highlights of the Namdini PFS,
The appointment of Anthony is yet which took in the old ore reserve of 4.76
another indication of Cardinal’s commit- moz gold from 129.6mt @ 1.14 g/t (0.5
ment to build Namdini and his immediate g/t cut-off).
task is to work with Lycopodium Ltd on Ore reserves at Namdini alone now to-
the process flowsheet for Namdini, as tal 5.1 moz gold.
part of the feasibility study Cardinal ex- – Mark Andrews
pects to release this quarter.
Archie Koimtsidis

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