Kenmare’s large mineral resource base at Moma is sufficient to support production at current rates for more than 100 years and comprises of Namalope, Congolone, Nataka and Pilivili deposits.

Mineralisation at Namalope is hosted in coastal, shallow marine sediments and dune sands. Several phases of deposition are evident, with the main mineralised units focussed around the north-eastern end of a major dune feature which has evidently formed a trap for heavy minerals.

The earliest concentration of HM is in a very large dunal feature, approximately 50km long, 10km wide and 100m high. This dune has been subjected to moderate weathering and is now red-brown in colour and is generally known as the “Old Red Dune”.

The mineralisation of the Congolone deposit is hosted in clean recent dune sands which are formed up against and in places overlie, the Old Red Dune sands. The recent dune sands are tan to yellow in colour, well sorted and low in slimes content. The Old Red Dune contains some mineralisation as well and has a pronounced seaward facing escarpment on its SE side. At the base of the escarpment is a well defined strandline containing the highest grades.

Mineralisation at Nataka is hosted in dune sands forming part of a very large dunal feature, approximately 50km long, 10km wide and 100m high, located 2.5 – 3km inland from the Mozambique Coast. This dune has been subjected to moderate weathering and is now red-brown in colour and is generally known as the “Old Red Dune” or “Deck Sands’. Local geology Unit 2 forms the host unit for the mineralisation with HM concentrated in a thick, planar body approximately 10km by 3km in the northern half of the dune west of the Namalope orebody. HM grade is diffuse with relatively low variability and the host unit extends from surface to base of the dune pile. There is some evidence of reworking on the northern side of the dune where it terminates against the Larde River flood plain. Slimes content varies both laterally and vertically with a trend to higher slimes toward the base of the deposit and on the northern side of the deposit.

Pilivili resource is a strand line deposit within the progradational sediments between the Old Red Dune in the North Northwest, and the current coast. Mineralisation is hosted in low lying swampy sands, and within the frontal coastal dunes. The mineralised sands are tan to yellow in colour, well sorted, fine grained, with moderate to low slimes content.The Old Red Dune forms the North North-western ridge of the edge of the deposit, and there is a pronounced escarpment in this unit on its seaward SE-facing side. At the base of the escarpment is a well-defined strandline containing the highest grades of the deposit. Underlying the base of the ore there is weathered basalt/andesite with thin layers of intermittent grits and clays at the interface.

The Moma Titanium Minerals Mine is located on the north-east coast of Mozambique and consist of three Wet Concentrator Plants (WCPs), two of which are mining the Namalope ore zone and one in the Pilivili ore zone.

Dredging takes place in three artificial ponds, where four dredges feed three Wet Concentrator Plants (A, B and C). The dredges cut into the ore at the pond’s base, causing the mineralised sand to slump into the pond where it is pumped to a WCP. Kenmare also has two dry mining operations to supplement ore feed to WCP A and WCP B.

WCP A
WCP A has been mining the Namalope ore zone since 2007 and is scheduled to continue mining there until 2025, when it will move to the Nataka deposit. Nataka is the largest ore zone within Moma’s portfolio. Within Nataka, a high grade mine path has been identified for WCP A, which averages a grade of 3.6% THM for 20 years. WCP A has a throughput capacity of 3,250 tonnes per hour (tph), and two dredges, Catarina and Mary Ann, provide feed to WCP A.

WCP B
WCP B mined the Namalope ore zone from 2013 to August 2020. In September 2020, WCP B was relocated to the high grade Pilivli ore zone and it recommenced production in late October. Kenmare evaluated a number of ore zones within Moma’s portfolio and Pilivili was selected due to its high grades and other favourable characteristics, such as low slimes and proximity to the Mineral Separation Plant (MSP). WCP B has a throughput capacity of 2,400 tph, following the upgrade work undertaken in 2018, and it has one dredge, named Deirdre.

WCP C
WCP C is the newest and smallest of the three Wet Concentrator Plants. It commenced production in February 2020 and it has a throughput capacity of 500 tph, representing one-fifth of the size of WCP B and one-sixth of the size of WCP A. WCP C is mining a high grade area of the Namalope ore zone, which is inaccessible to the two larger Wet Concentrator Plants. It has one dredge, named Julia.

Tailings are deposited into a series of settling ponds, dried and re-contoured, with the previously removed topsoil redeposited.

Moma consists of three Wet Concentrator Plants: WCP A, WCP B, WCP C and the mineral separation plant(MSP)

The first processing stage at the WCPs consists of rejecting oversize material. Next, the ore feed is passed over progressive stages of gravity spirals, which separate the HMC from tailings (silica sand and clay).

HMC is pumped to the Mineral Separation Plant (MSP), where it is stockpiled prior to further processing. HMC consists of valuable heavy minerals (ilmenite, rutile, zircon and monazite), other heavy minerals and a small amount of other minerals (the bulk of which is silica sand).

HMC is transferred from stockpiles by front-end loaders and fed to the Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separation (WHIMS) plant to separate magnetic from nonmagnetic fractions.

The MSP uses magnetic, gravity and electrostatic circuits to separate the valuable minerals of ilmenite, rutile, zircon and monazite into products. The magnetic fraction of WHIMS outp ........