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AFRIcA DoWn UnDeR PReVIeW

tors in DRC, particularly around battery
minerals. Serge [Ngandu, director of cor-
porate affairs] represented AVZ and the
World Bank showed interest in Manono
because of the lithium and particularly
because we have a downstream strate-
gy. Downstream processing is becoming
more important, and the new president
wants an opportunity to open a battery
minerals mine.”
The DRC Government is not the only
group interested by AVZ’s downstream
ambitions.
While the company has three SC6
offtake agreements in place covering
80% of production, the 400mt @ 1.65%
lithium oxide Manono resource is large
enough to feed other product streams.
The company is already pursuing a
value-addition strategy which will see
Manono Stage 1b produce 45,000 tpa
of primary lithium sulphate. A further
20,000 tpa primary lithium sulphate
could be added in Stage 2 with a con-
ceptual design study also started on a Manono contains evidence of previous mining operations based around tin and tantalum
Stage 3 lithium hydroxide plant.
Ferguson said many of the new insti-
tutional investors were intrigued by the metres at a grade gather the artisa-
downstream element. of 75-180 g/cubic Downstream nal miners together
metre for its Likushi
“Once we explain the push to down- a JORC-compliant “ processing in a cooperative to
stream processing, they see the proposi- Flats project at mine the alluvial
tion,” he said. Manono. is becoming more tin,” Ferguson said.
If firming lithium prices have given AVZ will define “Once the alluvial
Manono ballast, a surging tin price has important, and the mining is complete,
delivered even greater unexpected up- resource on the new president wants we can then retrain
side. AVZ signed its first tin offtake in project before using the miners for other
March but is now also investigating the local small-scale an opportunity employment.”
potential to exploit the project’s consider- miners to develop to open a battery The alluvial tin
able alluvial tin potential. operations. chapter would add
In May, the company declared an ex- “We will get the minerals mine. another dimension
ploration target of 25-75 million cubic mining licence and to the AVZ narra-
tive, but Ferguson
knows the company’s chances of be-
coming a bestseller rest on international
debt and equity markets backing the
lithium story.
Once the DFS, mining licence and col-
laboration agreements are finalised, the
company will move straight into financing
discussions.
“We will mandate a lead arranger in
September and then make the final in-
vestment decision within three months
of that,” Ferguson said. “There is a lot
of bank interest and we are also talking
to groups about a mix of debt and equity
and offtake and prefinance.
“There is also interest from the de-
velopment finance institutions so I think
we will probably have $US400 million
already covered before we go to public
debt and equity markets.”
– Dominic Piper

Large spodumene crystals are evident in the Manono drill core

Page 48 aUgUST 2021 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT