The Kwale Project initially comprised three areas that contained concentrations of heavy minerals. They were the South Dune, Central Dune (now totally depleted by mining and currently the repository for sand tailings from the South Dune) and the North Dune deposits, with the Bumamani deposit being discovered subsequently.

THE NORTH DUNE
The North Dune is part of the extensive Kwale Dune systems comprising of reddish, windblown Magarini sand formations that overlie a sequence of mineralised clay-rich fluviatile units, which in turn overlie a Mesozoic sandstone Base, known as the Mazeras formation. These three units are separated by lateritic paleo-surfaces which signify a time-gap between the geological formations. The Mazeras Sandstone, derived from the disintegration of the Mozambique Belt metamorphic rocks, has likely provided the supply of heavy minerals to the Magarini sand dunes and the fluviatile formations. Exploration of the Kenyan coastline is yet to be successful in terms of mineralised paleo-strandlines related to fossil marine terraces, as these are likely buried beneath recent barren fluvial overburden or were just not developed owing to reduced energy levels from a fringing coral reef that has acted as a barrier to effective winnowing and reworking of HM deposits.

The uppermost zone at Kwale North, referred to as Ore Zone 1, is a dark brown, predominantly fine grained, well sorted silty sand with very little induration. It is also char ........

Kwale Operations is located 50 kilometres south of Mombasa, the principal port facility for East Africa. Base Resources employs a hydraulic mining method.

Kwale incorporates the Kwale South Dune, Kwale North Dune and Bumamani deposits.

The mining method is hydraulic mining, which Base Titanium has used successfully since 2017. It is non-selective, with hydraulic mining units (HMU) using high pressure water jets to sluice the entire ore face, which flows as a slurry to a sump and is then pumped, ultimately, to the wet concentrator plant (WCP).

The pit slopes are currently about 50 degrees in Ore 1 and Ore 4 at the South Dune. The ore is scheduled to be mined in a radial extraction centred on proposed HMU sump locations. Sump locations have been estimated by considering low points in the economic mineralisation, constrained to larger mining blocks defined by watershed analysis of the lower ore surface. These larger blocks vary in dimension due to the surface undulation, however the smallest of those remaining to be mined is 31Ha in plan area. The size of these blocks is not considered to represent any concerns with respect to minimum mining width and the proposed HMU method demonstrates the selectivity required to mine to the pit extents, even at the boundaries of the dune mineralisation where the depth of pit is low.

There is no ore/waste discrimination and sub-economic material that cannot be selectively mined is included as planne ........

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A broad water management strategy has been developed to provide sufficient water for the operations. Currently, more than half of the water required for the Kwale Mine operations is comprised of recycled water recovered through the TSF and associated settlement ponds with the shortfall coming primarily from the Mukurumudzi Dam. Groundwater abstraction from the mine’s wellfield is used to provide potable water and water for components of the processing plant that require clean water such as the fire suppression system.

Give that co-disposal of coarse and fine tailings is now planned for the North Dune, water recovery from co-disposal is much greater than compared to the present mining method (most of the water pumped with pure fine tailings is locked up for many years). This obviates the need for other potential sources of water such as water bores from the mine’s wellfield. Should water recovery from co-disposal be less than expected, Base will draw water to make up for this shortfall, from the Mukurumudzi Dam, which will very likely be within the current permit conditions.

A water treatment plant was installed and treats all water used for domestic purposes on site (e.g. drinking water, water for bathing and laundry, cooking, etc.). Domestic water demand for the mining staff and administrative offices are from the wellfield. The Likoni Ship loading Facility receives the potable water it requires from a commercial supplier.