Sovereign Metals is now looking forward to the next steps of the pilot phase at Kasiya including the hydraulic mining trial and various other activities. Pic: Getty Images
Mining
Special report: Rio Tinto-backed Sovereign Metals has finished a dry mining trial at its world class Kasiya deposit in Malawi, with a test pit excavated to 20m through weathered ore at the best in class natural rutile and graphite project.
Sovereign Metals’ (ASX:SVM) Kasiya project on Malawi’s Lilongwe Plain, to the west of the capital, has come under the global radar of mega miner Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), which moved onto the company’s share register in June 2023.
Kasiya contains 1.8Bt at 1% rutile and 1.4% graphite, two-thirds of that in the higher confidence indicated category.
A PFS study last year highlighted the project would cost US$597m to build but generate US$415m in average annual EBITDA and US$16bn in revenue over its first 25 years of operations.
RIO acquired a 15% placement of shares at 48.6c each or a total of $40.4m, with a chance to go to 19.76% by exercising a mid-2024 option over an additional 34.54m shares at 53.5c each – $18.48m in total.
Now, in what investors believe could lead to Rio moving to acquire the rest of the company once Kasiya’s development as the world’s biggest natural rutile and graphite producer is all locked down, the mining giant has exercised that option.
RIO’s collaboration has helped SVM progress the project at a rapid pace, enabling it to launch into pilot phase mining in May.
That work has so far resulted in the completion of a dry mining trial with a test pit excavated to a depth of 20m through the weathered ore at Kasiya.
SVM says this confirms Kasiya ore can be efficiently mined using convention dry mining techniques and a simple mobile excavator fleet.
For the test pit, the dry mining fleet consisted of four excavators, 20 trucks and a support fleet including two bulldozers and a motor grader.
The pilot phase is a critical part of Kasiya’s optimisation study; empirical data generated from the Pilot Phase will determine optimal project excavation, material handling, processing, backfilling and rehabilitation approaches.
“Completion of the test pit at this scale marks a significant achievement,” SVM managing director Frank Eagar says.
“The mining, hydrology and geotechnical data collected throughout is invaluable in our understanding of the orebody and the simplicity of a potential dry-mining operation at Kasiya.
“We now look forward to the next steps of the pilot phase including the hydraulic mining trial, cyclone separation of ore, backfilling of test pits and soil rehabilitation.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Sovereign Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
