Mining Intelligence and News
Cameroon

Minim Martap Project

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Categories

Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StagePermitting
Commodities
  • Bauxite
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Strip mining (roll-over)
  • Surface miner
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotMinim Martap is a world-class Project supported by a Bank Feasibility Study. Results from the Study confirmed Minim Martap as a robust long-term project, producing some of the highest-grade bauxite globally for an initial 20 years of mining.

Canyon Resources continues to make progress in anticipation of the Cameroon Government granting the Mining Permit for the development of Minim Martap. A proposed Subscription Agreement with Eagle Eye Asset Holdings Pte Ltd (EEA) was announced on 17 August 2023 to further assist the Company as it progresses discussions with the Government of Cameroon regarding the issue of a Mining License. As the key strategic partner, EEA’s experience in financing and developing projects in Africa has already proven to be beneficial to the Company during ongoing discussions to finalise planning with the Ministry of Mines.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Canyon Resources Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Camalco SA (operator) 100 % Direct
The Minim Martap Project is 100% owned by Camalco, a wholly owned subsidiary of Canyon.

Upon the grant of a Mining Permit for the Minim Martap mining areas, in accordance with Section 59 of the Mining Code, an entity of the State will be granted 10% ownership of the special purpose Joint Venture Company formed for that purpose, free of charge. The Mining Permit is, upon grant, transferred by Camalco to this new company. Up to an additional 25% ownership of the new company may be acquired via direct investment by the entity of the State under terms and conditions mutually agreed by the parties, and with the same rights and obligations as the other shareholders.

Deposit type

  • Bauxite

Summary:

The deposit defined within the Minim Martap Project Resource is a Bauxite Deposit. The formation of bauxite within a lateritic setting requires the presence of Al bearing ground rock, an oxygen-rich groundwater, a warm temperate – tropical environment with high rainfall levels, and time.

The presence of bauxite relates predominantly to the reduction of all other elements from the lateritic section, especially Si and Fe, leaving Al present within the very stable series of Al hydroxides of Gibbsite and Boehmite. Bauxite forms in the top of the lateritic profile where it is preserved (the top 10-15m), overlying often a 2-5m transition zone), and derived from the underlying sediments. The surface of the bauxite zone is dominated by bauxite rubble, with little Fe oxides and other minerals present – it is clearly a surface that is undergoing physical erosion over time and it is highly probable that this surface has reduced in level quite significantly since the period from which the current plateaus were meant to have been preserved.

The bauxite zone in the Cameroon Ngaoundéré region is predominantly 10-15m thick, and within it the grades of Al can vary between 35-62% Al as well as 5-30%Fe. These elements are the two main constituents. The Ngaoundal bauxite is formed from the bauxitization of a basalt and this has meant significantly lower Al Grades, higher Fe grades and very low residual Si values. The Minim Martap and Makan bauxite is formed over more Al rich basal rocks (granites, feldspar rich gneisses) and Al grades are high, Fe grades lower, and residual Si values higher.

Mineralisation as modelled extends over 15 plateaus – within the Minim Martap licence the plateaus cover an approximate total area of 20km x 20km, with individual plateaus up to 1km wide, and 10km in length. In the Makan licence there is one plateau, approximately 1km x 1km in area. In the Ngaoundal licence there are 3 plateaus, approx.. total area of 1.5km x1.5km.

All the plateaus are >35% Al2O3 mineralised generally between 6 - 10m thick, from surface.

There are multiple other plateaus identified as potentially economic-grade bauxite-hosts. These are untested by drilling or surface sampling.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

Summary:

After cutting with the surface miners, the bauxite will be loaded into mine trucks using front-end-loaders and hauled to the ROM stockpile areas (one ROM per plateau). No crushing or screening will be required. Bauxite will rehandled into high-capacity road trains and hauled from the mine areas to the rail-head at Makor, where the bauxite will be transferred onto into containerized vessels, which will be loaded onto flat-bed rail cars for transport to the port of Douala, a distance of some 840km. At the port, the bauxite will be stockpiled before being loaded onto barges and trans-shipped into ocean-going vessels for delivery to the customers – principally, alumina refineries in Europe, Middle East and Asia. The bauxite product is suitable for direct feed into alumina refineries using the low-temperature Bayer process to convert bauxite to pure alumina, and it is expected that a premium price can be obtained due to the relatively high Al2O3 grade and low SiO2 grade of the product, comp ........

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameterAvg. LOM
Bauxite Head Grade, % 51.1

Production

CommodityUnitsAvg. AnnualLOM
Bauxite Mt 6.4110
All production numbers are expressed as ore.

Operational metrics

Metrics
Stripping / waste ratio  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2022 study.

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsAverage
C1 cash costs Bauxite USD  ....  Subscribe
C2 total cash costs Bauxite USD  ....  Subscribe
C3 fully allocated costs Bauxite USD  ....  Subscribe
Assumed price Bauxite USD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2022 study / presentation.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
Initial CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Sustaining CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 8% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
After-tax payback period, years  ......  Subscribe

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 11, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 11, 2023

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