Page 70 - pd236 March 16 mag-web

INDABA REVIEW

Black Mountain banks
on vermiculite

One-time silver hopeful Black Black Mountain has acquired the Namakera vermiculite mine in Uganda
Mountain Resources Ltd is and all associated site infrastructure
seeking a fresh start in the agricul-
tural sector after taking control of the and Luca Bechis also joins the board as “To have an opportunity to secure an
world’s largest vermiculite deposit a non-executive director. asset which is in production, which has
and a promising phosphate project. existing infrastructure and existing sales
Brewer, who founded African Phos- and marketing agreements, allows us to
Black Mountain has entered into phate late last year, welcomed the op- hit the ground running,” Brewer told Pay-
a binding heads of agreement with portunity to move into production almost dirt.
private company African Phosphate immediately.
Pty Ltd to acquire Namakera Mining “This is not a greenfield exploration
Company Ltd, operator of the Nam- Black Mountain executive director Jason play…more than 80% of Uganda’s popu-
akera vermiculite mine and owner of Brewer on site at Namakera lation is involved in the agricultural sector
the Busumbu phosphate project in and 90% of the country’s foreign earn-
Uganda. ings come out of the sector, so clearly
there is a lot of potential for the country
The acquisition includes the exist- in terms of the export markets to Europe
ing mining and exploration licences, and Asia, but also regionally in Africa.”
all mining equipment, the process-
ing plant, power generator, mine of- Production from Namakera, about
fice and associated site infrastruc- 190km north-east of Uganda’s capital
ture. Kampala, began in 2002 and sales for
the first 11 months of 2015 totalled 1,118t
Black Mountain will fork out 400 vermiculite, of which 70% was classed
million shares to the vendors, finan- as either premium large or medium flake,
ciers and advisors at the completion selling for more than $US400/t.
of the transaction, as well as a 1%
per annum royalty on revenue received Black Mountain will soon start a BFS
from mineral production at Namakera. with the intention of increasing produc-
The company has also committed to rais- tion from 30,000 tpa to at least 80,000
ing $2.5 million in new capital investment tpa, representing about 10% of current
into the operation, including exploration global demand for vermiculite products.
and mine development.
“We’ve got to go in there and look at
Sanlam Private Wealth Australia and different ways of optimising the opera-
Verdant Capital have been appointed ad- tion,” Brewer said.
visors to the company to assist with the
acquisition and ensure all capital require- “Over the first 3-6 months we’ll look
ments are met. to make a number of modifications and
develop partnerships with our mineral
Namakera, a former Rio Tinto plc as- processing group, then we’ll look to
set, is considered the world’s largest
vermiculite deposit, boasting an inferred
resource of 57.4mt @ 26.7% vermiculite
(JORC 2004) with a flake size greater
than 18mm.

Black Mountain’s planned move into
Africa’s booming agricultural sector – the
African Development Bank is forecasting
growth of $US500 billion over the next
five years – will also result in an overhaul
of the company’s board and manage-
ment team.

Executive director Peter Landau and
company secretary Jane Flegg depart,
while non-executive director Jason
Brewer transitions to an executive role.
John Ryan will continue to manage the
company’s US silver projects.

Simon Grant-Rennick will become
Black Mountain’s new chairman, Julian
Ford takes over as company secretary

PAGE 70 MARCH 2016 AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT