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“I think we should be able to keep that said commodity prices “more than made “Base is no Robinson Crusoe in this re-
continuity.” up for that”. gard, there are two hydropower projects
A September PFS suggested min- The hope is that price environment and an airport upgrade caught up in the
ing high-grade zones of Bumamani and prevails through the development of To- tangle of spaghetti which is the permit-
Kwale North Dune concurrently with liara. ting system there,” he said. “We are try-
Kwale South Dune would extend mine Acquired in 2019, Toliara has grown ing to straighten the spaghetti out so the
life by 7.5 months to July 2024, with into an even larger project under Base’s Government can understand the project
11.4mt of material mined from the zones. stewardship. and the economic impact. It is now a
At Kuranze, the company has received The DFS2 study update, delivered in question of bringing the President [Andry
approvals to begin exploration on the September, increased the Toliara NPV to Rajoelina] over the line.
Tanzanian side of the border. $US1 billion and free cash flow by 60% to “We are confident we will get the right
“We will begin auger drilling shortly $US5.9 billion. The increased economics answer. It could be two weeks or two
which gives us that first-pass window to come as a result of a larger reserve base months but the closer we get to the elec-
see the structures we would expect to and a scaled-up Stage 2 which will see tion, the more impetus there is.”
continue on the Kenyan side,” Carstens mining rates of 25 mtpa. Finalisation of the fiscal terms will al-
said. “If you get onto something, you can Carstens said the study had delivered low Base to begin financing discussions.
move quickly.” beyond even the company’s expecta- Carstens said the current supply/demand
Carstens’ focus on extending Kwale is tions. scenario gave the company several fund-
understandable given the recent perfor- “It probably looks even better than ing options.
mance of the mine. when we bought it,” he said. “This fea- “Given the structural supply short-
The September quarter saw 72,866t of sibility study really gives the market a age, people are begging for rutile and
ilmenite, 17,762t rutile and 6,069t zircon sense of the full potential of the project it is seen as a long-term trend,” he said.
(as well as 506t of low-grade zircon) pro- even though we still haven’t included all “That is good for us in terms of potential
duced, keeping Kwale on track to meet the drilling in the resource or the rare JV partners because a lot of groups are
guidance of 310-340,000t ilmenite, 73- earths [monzanite] and garnet potential,” looking to put their foot on supply.”
83,000t rutile and 24-28,000t zircon for he said. Having carved a niche for itself as an
FY2022. “We had anticipated the expansion of independent producer in a tightly con-
“Across its life, Kwale has been pre- Stage 2 and now that we’ve done that trolled sector, Base won’t be short of suit-
dictable in terms of production, tonnes – and the ability for further expansion ors when it comes to financing Toliara.
and grade,” Carstens said. is enormous – it becomes the best un- “It is harder for a start-up because
Base is being rewarded for that con- developed mineral sands project in the you don’t have the track record on op-
sistency in the sales column with com- world by some margin.” erations,” Carstens said of mineral sands
modity prices surprising to the upside As Carstens admits however, the most project development. “You can’t under-
throughout 2021. significant development hurdle remains estimate how important ESG is to the big
“In April 2020, the consensus was the permitting process. The Malagasy Western pigment companies. They need
that pigment use would drop by 30% but Government placed a suspension order to prove their credentials throughout the
it was actually up 4% by the end of the on Toliara in late 2019 ahead of nego- supply chain. It has become a real factor
year and prices in China are the highest tiations over the fiscal terms of Base’s that they know us and are happy to tie up
they’ve been since 2012,” Carstens said. investment. More than two years on, with Base.”
While some FOB value has been erod- Carstens is confident the process will – Dominic Piper
ed by increased shipping rates, Carstens soon be completed.

Base can boast a vaccination rate of 98% (first dose) and 80%
(second dose) at Kwale, against a national average of 4%

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT FeBRUaRY 2022 Page 75