The western coastal plain of South Africa contains a significant resource of detrital heavy minerals by world standards.

The heavy mineral sand deposits occur in a current active beach environment (eg Tormin mine) as well as in older palaeo-beach raised strandlines found inland (inland strandlines) eg Tronox Namakwa Sands.

Apart from the mid-Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary (Paleogene) sediments along the coast, numerous small fossiliferous, marine and terrestrial deposits of Neogene age outcrop along the coastal zone.

The onshore mineral sands are marine palaeo-terraces “Inland Strands”, aeolian sands and fluvial sediments. These targets were formed during Miocene, Pliocene and Quaternary/Pleistocene coastal transgression (sea move inland) and regression cycles.

The lithological units of the Western Strandline can be described as below:

Aeolian sand – non mineralised
Red Aeolin sand – mineralised
Silcrete Duricrust/ dorbank
Orange Feldspathic Sand – non mineralised
Orange Feldspathic Sand – mineralised
Dorbank – mineralised
Strandline – mineralised
Base pebble beds – mineralised
Schist basement

For purposes of estimation, the lithology has been grouped into the following:
Red Aeolian sand
Silcrete Duricrust/dorbank
Orange Feldspathic Sand
Main Strandline Mineralisation (including the thin mineralised dorbank)
Secondary perched strandline mineralisation
Gravel

Tormin Mineral Sands Operation consists of a number of high-grade placer beach and strandline mineral sands deposits hosting some of the richest grades in the world of naturally occurring zircon, ilmenite, rutile, magnetite and garnet.

Current Beaches
Operations first commenced at Tormin in late 2013 at the Current Beaches and over a six year period, the Company has mined nearly five times the Indicated Resource of 2.7 million tonnes.

Since commissioning, mining at Tormin has taken place over a 12 kilometre zone of beach area (“Current Beaches”) directly in front of the existing processing infrastructure.

Northern Beaches
In July 2020, Mineral Commodities was granted an amendment to the existing Mining Right under Section 102 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act No. 49 of 2008 (“S102 Mining Right”). Under the amended licence, mining operations can expand to include the higher grade Northern Beaches where a high grade JORC compliant resource of 2.5 million tonnes at 23.5% Total Heavy Mineral (“THM”) in the category of Measured, Indicated and Inferred using a 2% cut-off was reported in May 2020.

The Northern Beaches incorporate ten beaches directly north of and adjoining the Current Beaches at Tormin. These areas unite semi-continuous tenements approximately 23.5km in length, covering an area of 398 hectares of beach sands prospective for zircon, rutile, ilmenite, garnet, leucoxene and magnetite. Like the Current Beaches, this deposit is an HMS deposit located on an active placer beach strandline undergoing continuous erosion, deposition and replenishment from oceanic storm and wave activity. The heavy minerals in the beach are constantly replenished by the transport of new sediment from deeper waters, much of which has been derived from the erosion of deposits accumulated in the elevated historic beach terraces onto the present beach.

Inland Strand
The Inland Strand areas granted under the S102 Mining Right include two areas approximately 5.6km in total length, covering 75 hectares of high-grade mineralisation adjacent to the existing mining operations on the Company owned farm, Geelwal Karoo 262. The Inland Strand S102 Mining Right areas are part of the Western Strandline, which incorporates an area approximately 12km in length, covering 1,741 hectares.

Western Strandline
The Inland Strand comprises multiple discrete palaeo strandlines running semi-parallel to the coastline and within the Company owned farm, Geelwal Karoo 262. Two palaeo-marine strandlines have been identified, consisting of a Western Strandline (35-40m above mean sea level) and an Eastern Strandline (86m above mean sea level). Aeromagnetic data indicates that the strandlines run continuously along the coastline of the Company’s tenure portfolio.

Mining
Typical open-pit mining is practised with excavators and articulated dump trucks being utilised. The resource is considered as dry mining feed and mineralisation can be any depth or width. There is no stripping, except ~25cm topsoil, as mineralisation starts near the surface. The thickness and continuous nature of the mineralisation supports nonselective bulk mining methods.

Ore is processed via a PBC where the minerals are separated by a chemical free gravity process before the garnet is separated at a garnet stripping plant and the non-magnetic material is separated from the heavy mineral concentrate.

The saltwater tailings are pumped back to the beach near the processing plant where the tidal action of the waves on the beaches distributes the tailings in a natural process, effectively reforming the beach profile.