DRC and Mines: a century after tin with the parastatal Zaire-Etain, the Australian junior AVZ Minerals and its discovery of lithium make Manono and the Chinese dream.
November 22, 2023 Franck Fwamba
Engineers from this company demonstrated Australia's seriousness in exploration, made the name of Manono big by Dathcom and attracted the gluttonous appetites of the Chinese.
A lithium deposit was discovered near the old mining town of Manono by the Australians of AVZ Minerals as part of the Dathcom Mining partnership with Cominière and Dathomir of the Chinese Simon Cong, production should begin in July 2023, residents hoped.
Indeed, here is what the colleagues of the Voice of America wrote in 2022 about Manono:
Near the rusty hulk of the old tin foundry, men and women, barefoot, search the ground in search of cassiterite, while hoping for the rebirth of their town of Manono, in DR Congo, thanks to the large deposit of lithium discovered at the gates of the old mining town.
A little further, the “diggers” bring their harvest to the Lukushi River where women, in the water from morning to evening, wash the gravel in zinc basins from which the small black pebbles of tin ore will emerge, of which they hope to make enough money to live on.
“There is nothing else in Manono, life is very difficult,” simply notes Marcelline Banza, 28, mother of three, who says she can earn between 15,000 and 18,000 Congolese francs ($7.5 to $9). ) per day by washing the sandy soil.
The area is dotted with bumpy, gullied terrain, excavated by hundreds of these artisanal miners armed with shovels and crowbars.
“The majority of the population lives below the poverty line and, rather than cultivating the fields, people prefer to dig, for faster income,” regrets Patrice Sangwa, head doctor of the Manono health zone, an isolated territory which faces malnutrition, cholera and even a measles epidemic which has killed dozens of children since December.
The city is located in the province of Tanganyika, born in 2015 from the division into four of Katanga, a region in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo overflowing with minerals, copper and cobalt in particular. It was created at the beginning of the 20th century, with the exploitation by Belgian settlers of a deposit of cassiterite, the ore of tin.
Quarries, dams, foundries, railways, housing, mines brought prosperity.
Ruins
But little by little, with the fall in prices, the turbulent years after independence in 1960 and poor management, the equipment aged, the city fell asleep and the final blow came from the war which accompanied the capture of the country in 1997 by Laurent-Désiré Kabila. “The war of aggression”, as the people of Manono call it, where the Rwandan soldiers left a very bad memory.
“We all fled. The foundry was destroyed, the houses looted, the European quarter devastated, that of the African executives too,” says Paul Kissoula, known as “Papa Paul”, 70 years old.
A quarter of a century later, vegetation invades the ruins, two steam locomotives, a crane, wagons rust at the side of the road, the slag heaps are covered with trees. “There hasn’t been anything for years,” regrets “Papa Paul” sadly.
Driver, he has known it all. He was hired in 1974 by “Congo Etain”, a public company which became “Zairetain” when the country changed its name under the presidency of Mobutu, then “Cominière” (Congolese mining company).
Today, Paul Kissoula is a driver for the Australian company AVZ Minerals which, in search of lithium, a metal that has become the star of electric car batteries, was the first to obtain a research permit in 2016 in Manono, where it set up a joint venture with Cominière.
“We are waiting for the permit”
After several years of drilling, carried out in particular in an old and vast cassiterite quarry called “Roche Dure”, the company discovered a deposit of “400 million tonnes of ore at 1.6%, probably the largest unexploited resource in the world,” says Nigel Ferguson, Managing Director of AVZ Minerals.
This represents lithium reserves of some 6 million tonnes, more than enough to compete with the usual producers such as Australia, Chile, Argentina and even China.
“The quality of the rock deposit is very good,” assures Nigel Ferguson, better according to him than lithium extracted from brines, as in South America.
In large hangars, the company stores the “cores” drilled into the rock, up to nearly 400 meters deep. In the first meters, there is the soil, then come the laterite, the schists…
Erick Nkulu wa Kabamba, geologist, then shows the “pegmatite” (magmatic rock) containing “spodumenes”, the lithium mineral. Samples are collected and sent for analysis to Perth, Australia.
The “definitive feasibility study” has been completed and was sent several months ago to the government, from which the company is now waiting to issue an operating permit.
When it has obtained it, AVZ “plans to devote 600 million dollars to the construction of a factory”, which should produce around 700,000 tonnes of finished product per year, usable mainly in batteries, specifies its boss.
It will also rehabilitate the old hydroelectric power station, increasing its capacity, and employing hundreds of local workers. If the permit arrives quickly, production could begin in 2023.
“People are suffering… AVZ will help us,” hopes the territorial administrator, Pierre Mukamba Kaseya who, like everyone else, is “waiting for the permit”.
“The specifications also provide for actions on roads, schools, hospitals…”, also anticipates Baccam Banza Cazadi, secondary school director. “We want them to be able to succeed, for the province and for the country. There is hope,” he assures.
Experienced and competent engineers who have made Australia proud, AVZ Minerals renowned and made Manono Great again after Zaire-Etain where the predecessors, the Chinese Simon Cong and the German Klaus Eckof, at Dathcom Mining were broke his teeth and fled. They deserve respect from the Congolese mining sector, consideration from all and trust from shareholders.
Nigel Munro Ferguson
He is a geologist and businessman who has been in several different mining companies. Mr. Ferguson serves as Managing Director and Executive Director at AVZ Minerals Ltd. and is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists.
In the past, Nigel Munro Ferguson was Country Manager at Ashanti Goldfields Co.
He was educated at one of Hobart's best private schools, Friends, where he played rugby and rowed.
After graduating from the University of Tasmania with a degree in geology, he began working in mineral exploration in several countries around the world. Africa became his specialty, and he headed Ashanti Goldfields in Tanzania, where he bought a gold mine that is now one of AngloGold Ashanti's most profitable.
Appointed Technical Director of AVZ Minerals in February 2017 by its then President and CEO Klaus Eckof, in 2018, a year after Ferguson became CEO replacing Mr. Eckof, AVZ said it had discovered ''the
most "largest hard rock spodumene deposit" in the world near Manono, a town located in an area formerly called the
"Triangle of Death" with the 1998 Rwandan war of aggression by the RCD and whose population now counts as on AVZ and the lithium project whose reserves have been certified by a team of geologists from Dathcom Mining, the partnership company with Cominière and Dathomir.
First viable feasibility study at Cominière
Thanks to the technical work and explorations carried out by Congolese and Australian geologists under the technical direction of experienced geologist Graeme Godsman Johnston, AVZ valorized the only mining research permit that remained in its portfolio after a suspicious transfer of other permits to HYVEST and HYSEN partnerships with Chinese and a Congolese politician.
While awaiting notification of the Operating Permit (EP) for permit 13359, the project rekindles hope for residents of securing their livelihoods.
While President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi launches the call for serious investors to jointly explore mineral resources in Katanga and Kasai, Nigel Ferguson and AVZ have proven to be among the good natural and legal persons including the Head of State needed for the mines of the DRC.
After recovering research permit 13359 and the Dathcom Mining joint venture at the beginning of 2017 by purchasing 60% of Dathomir in the project and paying USD6 million to the state company Cominière, AVZ completed more or less 30,000 meters diamond drilling, as well as RC drilling then carried out a feasibility study (within the legal deadline, in 3 years in 2020) certifying 400 million tonnes of lithium resources at 1.65%, therefore probably the largest resource not developed in the world.
Energy transition and infrastructure
If exploited, Manono's lithium will help the DRC to better compete with other producing countries such as China, Argentina or Chile.
The investment cost of around $600 million to build a factory, purchase the mining equipment up to the processing plant, the crusher-grinding of the materials to pass through a separation plant in a dense environment which will be followed by sorting by size to have approximately 700,000 tonnes per year of the product called SE6, which is spodumene concentrate with 6% lithium was judged normal and acceptable by Ir Raph Ngoy Mushila of First Quantum who compared various projects of lithium throughout the world including in Australia.
Metallurgical test work undertaken by Kingston Process Metallurgy in Canada confirmed that AVZ's proposed lithium sulfate plant process to process lithium from Dathcom Mining in Manono was technically feasible and that the 1.5 kg of sulfate from Primary lithium produced was suitable as raw material in battery factories.
Lithium production by AVZ and Dathcom is also something that some villagers are waiting for as they want to secure their livelihoods. If the authorities issue the license, lithium production could become the main provider of jobs in Manono.
Comprehensive technical due diligence studies of the railways to Lobito and Dar es Salaam have been carried out and both are considered suitable for export of the product. This involves the construction of basic infrastructure by serious miners for the benefit of the country and the populations, Mark Bristow and Kibali did it with the national road which goes from Doko (Watsa territory) to Aru (Ituri territory) on the border with Uganda. Rehabilitated dirt road, maintained by Kibali despite paying the toll to Foner.
Two main product export routes were selected, namely Manono to Kabondo Dianda intermodal intermediate station (Haut Lomami Province) by road, then on SNCC to Tenke and TAZARA railway to port of Dar es Salaam.
The second goes from Manono to the Kabondo Dianda railhead by road, then on SNCC to Tenke and to the Angolan Railway (CFB) to the port of Lobito. A third possible option is also available to Walvis Bay via the Walvis Bay Corridor.
Manono Special Economic Zone
AVZ has worked closely with relevant government officials, mainly Minister Julien Paluku of Industry, to facilitate a special economic zone around the Manono project which the Head of State spoke about at Mining Indaba on February 7, 2023, which will provide a favorable tax regime for the project and facilitate industrialization in this part of the country.
This is the only monster mining project of the current mandate of President Fatshi and which will produce significant lasting results in the communities and make it more than popular in a province having experienced the horrors of the war imposed by Rwanda through the RCD rebel movement.
In addition and like the Kibali Gold Mine mining project led by Mark Bristow, AVZ Power worked with the technical services of the National Ministry of Energy and Hydraulic Resources and Cominière, according to several documentary sources and testimonies from the General Secretariat for Energy, to the point of producing a feasibility study on the rehabilitation of the Mpiana Mwanga I and II hydroelectric power station, in order to guarantee energy to the mine and the populations of Manono as well as to schools and public health centers.
The refurbishment of the hydroelectric plant would include the installation of up to 30.9 MW via three new turbine generators in turbine hall number two at Mpiana Mwanga
Low carbon footprint, green and responsible mining
Additionally, an independent greenhouse gas study also indicated that the Manono project was likely to have one of the lowest carbon footprints of any hard-rock lithium mine in the world. This was mainly due to AVZ's strategic location next to the Mpiana Mwanga hydroelectric power station which, once renovated, was expected to provide 99% of the Manono project's electricity needs.
The greenhouse gas assessment, which was carried out by leading global environmental and sustainability consultants
Environmental Resource Management (ERM), assessed emissions associated with all operations over the 20-year life of the Manono project, processing facilities and road transport of products.
AVZ is also studying and planning important
greenhouse gas mitigation measures , including:
Purchasing an electric mining fleet once commercially viable equipment becomes available;
Generating hydrogen from excess renewable electricity to enable the use of fuel cell electric vehicles; and the establishment of a 5,000 hectare sequestration plantation.
“We will continue to strive to improve our greenhouse gas emissions profile as we develop the world-class Manono project,” Ferguson said.
“Ultimately, we want the electricity produced by the Mpiana Mwanga hydroelectric plant to be used to run all our mining equipment, making the Manono project a 100% green mine.”
Technical experience present at the service of the country
Nigel Ferguson has been active in mineral exploration in the DRC since around 2000. He has established and managed several companies, some of which have been very successful and others not.
In 2004, Nigel and his team discovered the Kibali gold deposit in the Haut-Uélé province. It was with the Australian company Moto Goldfields listed on the Australian Stock Exchange that Klaus Eckof managed, who knows him very well and respects him. It was involved in a standard JV with the DRC government.
After their discovery, they drilled the ore body and eventually sold it to Randgold. This mine, discovered by Nigel and his team, now underpins a large part of the DRC's economy in the North-Eastern part of the country.
He also launched
Tiger Resources (which was a partner of Gécamines in the Société Minière de Kipoi – SEK, in Haut-Katanga on the Likasi Route), a company which was also lost to mismanaged Chinese commercial interests leading to its closure and loss of jobs.
Graeme Godsman Johnston
Graeme Godsman Johnston is Technical Director at AVZ Minerals Ltd and the only member of the Nigel team who had not worked in Africa prior to his current role since 2018. He is also a board member of Gemstar Diamonds Ltd. and Panther Resources Pty Ltd. and a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
In the past, he served as Executive Director and Technical Director at River Rock Energy Ltd., geologist at Midwest Corp. and Non-Executive Director and Chief Geologist at Birrabong Corp. Ltd.
Graeme Godsman Johnston holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Glasgow and a postgraduate diploma from the Royal School of Mines.
His expertise, his rigor and his faith in the DRC and the population of Manono have contributed to the greatness of Dathcom, to the reputation of AVZ Minerals in Africa and the DRC, to the development of the ambitious project which has made Manono great and renowned in throughout the world to attract the gluttonous appetites of Chinese people of all stripes.
With Nigel and
Serge Ngandu , Graeme led the field work in Manono where he likes to live alongside the local populations in complicity with the customary notables as a sign of uninhibited social integration which many Westerners and especially the Chinese lack.
The management team at AVZ, under Nigel Ferguson, was hand-picked and built for their collective experience with Congolese engineer Serge Ngandu who led Areva's operations in the Central African Republic and worked for several multinationals in the country. and across the world.
At Dathcom Mining, they have developed the technical opportunity demonstrating that they are not “adventurers” but explorers, designers and developers of model mining projects with a long track record of success in the DRC.
The vision of AVZ and its boss Nigel Ferguson (to develop a monster, complete and fully green integrating project by developing the community which starts from exploration to production without requiring electricity from the country) intersects with that of the Head of State Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi, the government of the Republic would do useful work by working on win-win partnerships in the critical minerals sector of Katanga for a DRC which wants to be a Solution Country and a Solution Country to the needs of global warming and those of the energy transition.
This field team made ''Manono Grande Encore'', thanks to the certification of one of the largest lithium reserves in the world, a century after the state company Zaire-Etain and its cassiterite (tin).
Tribune by Franck Fwamba for FKF Softpress
Un gisement de lithium a été découvert à Manono par les australiens de AVZ Minerals dans le cadre du partenariat Dathcom Mining, la production devrait commencer dès juillet 2023, espéraient les habitants.
leaders.lu
, and they all got many likes along the way for that trash believe it or not, thats how that bs started, with cultist diatribe, which I then set them straight on, then came more troll gifs because they had no intelligent retort, and now instead of reflecting on that you try to twist it and keep carrying this on, just give it a rest
