Mining Intelligence and News
DRC

Manono Project

Click for more information

Categories

Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StagePermitting
Commodities
  • Lithium
  • Tin
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotAVZ’s securities on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) were placed in a voluntary suspension on 11 May 2022, following the Company’s request for a trading halt on 9 May 2022, pending the finalisation of the mining and exploration rights for the Manono Project.

14 July 2021 - Front End Engineering Design (FEED), process plant design and site geotechnical investigation studies completed confirming updated CAPEX and OPEX for the Manono Project

AVZ upgraded its JORC Proved and Probable Ore Reserves estimate to 131.7Mt – an increase of 41.6% from the 93Mt reported in its April 2020 DFS. The Manono Project LoM extended to 29.5 years, based on a 4.5Mtpa ore operation underpinned by the Ore Reserves – an increase of 47.5% from its April 2020 DFS. The extended LoM has been used as an input in the optimised DFS/BFS.

Using FEED Study outputs, work commenced on the optimisation and upgrading of the April 2020 Manono Definitive Feasibility Study to Bankable Feasibility Study.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
La Congolaise D’exploitation Miniere SA 25 % Indirect
AVZ Minerals Ltd. 75 % Indirect
On the 2 nd February 2017, AVZ Minerals Ltd. formed a joint-venture (JV) with La Congolaise d’Exploitation Miniere SA (Cominiere) and Dathomir Mining Resources SARL (Dathomir) to become the majority partner in a JV aiming to explore and develop the pegmatites contained within PR13359. With the purchase of Dathomir’s 15% shareholding in 2021, current ownership of the Manono Lithium Project is AVZ 75% and Cominiere 25%.

On September 27, 2021, AVZ Minerals announced Suzhou Cath Energy Technologies (“CATH”) will earn a 24% interest in the Manono Project.

July 29, 2022 - AVZ Minerals Limited confirms that the parties to the Transaction Implementation Agreement (“TIA”) have agreed to amend the end date to 31 December 2022 to provide for completion of closure formalities.

Contractors

Lock

- subscription is required.

Deposit type

  • Pegmatite

Summary:

The Manono Lithium and Tin Project lies within the mid-Proterozoic Kibaran Belt, an intracratonic domain stretching for over 1,000 km from just north of Kolwezi north into southwest Uganda. The belt strikes predominantly southwest to northeast and is truncated by the northsouth to north-northwest-south-southeast trending Western Rift system.

Historically the Manono Lithium and Tin Project has been referred to as the Manono-Kitotolo Deposit, comprising the north-eastern Manono Sector and the south-western Kitotolo Sector separated by 2 km by Lake Lukushi.

The area is covered by a variably lateritised eluvial cover up to 8 m thick and consists of orange brown sandy or clayey-sandy, loose laterites, crumbly laterites and hardpan laterites. Sandy alluvial material cover occurs along the Lukushi River and its tributaries. The alluvial and eluvial (including the lateritised material) cover contains significant cassiterite and minor columbite- tantalite mineralization and was mined prior to the discovery of the pegmatitehosted mineralization and is still mined by artisanal miners today.

Within the Manono-Kitotolo sectors there are currently 7 large discrete pegmatite intrusions recognized, namely Roche Dure, Kyoni, M’Pete, Tempete, Carriere de L’Este, Malata and Kahungwe, along with several smaller unnamed pegmatites.

The host rocks to the pegmatites comprise mica schists and mafic schists/amphibolites, the latter being more prevalent in the hanging wall to the Carriere de L’Este and Kahungwe pegmatites of the Manono Sector. The rocks are derived from sedimentary, probably argillic with subordinate arkosic compositions, and mafic volcanic protoliths (Spitalny, 2018; Dewaele et al., 2015) of the Kibara Supergroup.

The mica schists contain lenses of amphibolite and have a well-developed schistosity and compositional banding, with variations in the quartz and mica contents, parallel to the schistosity. In places the mica schists contain numerous staurolite porphyroblasts (>5mm) and may also contain tourmaline and rarely contain garnet porphyroblasts (Bassot and Morio,1989 and Spitalny, 2018). These rocks dip at ~70° to the northwest and vary locally from moderate to steep dips (50°-85°) with minor intra-folial folding.

The pegmatites have a surface exposure of approximately 12 km along a northeast-southwest strike with an average exposed width of approximately 400 m, but this varies from 50 m to 800 m wide (Kokonyangi et al, 2006; Dewaele, 2015), and true thicknesses of up to 250 m (for the Roche Dure pegmatite) to 3,000 m, are lens-shaped, thickest in the centre and thinning along strike, and often have thin offshoots parallel to the main pegmatite body.

The Roche Dure Pegmatite is the largest of the four pegmatites in the southern Kitotolo Sector. It is at least 2,800 m long, based upon exposed pegmatite in pit-walls and natural outcrops and with intersections achieved from the recent drilling. The pegmatite has a strike of about 055° and dips at about 40° to the southeast.

The pegmatite has a broadly lenticular shape and drilling completed by AVZ has confirmed that at its thickest point the Roche Dure pegmatite has a true thickness exceeding 250 m and thins along strike in both directions. The pegmatite is hosted by mica and biotite schists. The only distinct recognisable zone within the Roche Dure Pegmatite is a narrow wall zone of contact metamorphosed tin rich greisens (typically about 0.5 m-1.0 m but can be up to a few tens of metres thick); the remainder of the pegmatite is essentially homogenous with regards to the distribution of spodumene, when the entire volume of the pegmatite is considered.

The greisen’s are a minor component and were developed along the contacts with the host rock. They may also be randomly distributed within the pegmatites and discontinuous. Small lenses and larger partings of the host schists and amphibolites are common within the pegmatites and of variable continuity. The larger more continuous partings are more common towards the footwall of the pegmatite and to northeast, where the Roche Dure pegmatite thins.

Drilling by AVZ at Roche Dure has shown the depth of weathering to be more variable from 0 m to 100 m with an average depth of 43 m. A transitional zone is also recognised from the drill core where the spodumene appears fresh and unaltered, but the feldspars are weathered, and the core is partially oxidised and broken.

Reserves

Lock

- subscription is required.

Mining Methods

Lock

- subscription is required.

Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Lock

- subscription is required.

Processing

Lock

- subscription is required.

Production

CommodityProductUnitsAvg. AnnualLOM
Tin Concentrate kt 363
Spodumene Concentrate kt 54711,354
Lithium sulphate Crystals t 45,375938,321
Tin Metal in concentrate t 828

Operational metrics

Metrics
Annual production capacity  ....  Subscribe
Annual production capacity  ....  Subscribe
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe
Stripping / waste ratio  ....  Subscribe
Waste tonnes, LOM  ....  Subscribe
Ore tonnes mined, LOM  ....  Subscribe
Total tonnes mined, LOM  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2020 study.

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsAverage
Total cash costs Lithium sulphate USD  ....  Subscribe
Total cash costs Spodumene USD  ....  Subscribe
Assumed price Lithium sulphate USD  ....  Subscribe
Assumed price Spodumene USD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2020 study / presentation.

Operating Costs

Currency2020
OP mining costs ($/t milled) USD 8.18 *  
Processing costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2020 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
Initial CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Sustaining CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Closure costs $M USD  ......  Subscribe
OP OpEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Processing OpEx $M USD 1,944
Transportation (haulage) costs $M USD 3,153
G&A costs $M USD 361
Royalty payments $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Gross revenue (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
EBITDA (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Net Income (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 10% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 10% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
After-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax payback period, years  ......  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 12, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 12, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 12, 2023

Lock

- subscription is required.