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Senegal
Grand Cote (Grande Côte)(GCO) Operation

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 Location:
100 km NE from Dakar, Senegal

  Regional Office:
Atryum Center building – 2nd floor – 06, route de Ouakam
Dakar
Senegal
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WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Fleet
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Zircon
  • Rutile
Mining Method
  • Dredging
  • Dry mining
Production Start...
Mine Life2047
Grande Côte mineral sands operation (GCO) is the world’s largest mining dredge operation. Using this mobile mine, Grande Côte Opérations produces mostly ilmenite and zircon, as well as rutile and leucoxene.

The dry mining unit was commissioned at the end of 2022. The dry sand mining unit feeds the floating concentration unit in parallel with the dredge. This makes it possible to increase production capacity and ore reserves.


Owners

Source: p. 10,68
CompanyInterestOwnership
Government of Senegal 10 % Indirect
Eramet Group 90 % Indirect
Grande Côte Operations SA (operator) 100 % Direct
The Eramet owns 90% of Grand Cote Operation through its 100% subsidiary TiZir Ltd.

Contractors

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Deposit Type

  • Mineral sands
  • Sedimentary


Summary:

The extensive Senegal-Mauritanian Basin covers most of Senegal and is composed of Mid-Jurassic to Recent, poorly cemented marine sands, marls, limestones and shales overlain by continental lacustrine and marine sediments.

The GCO project is within the belt of coastal dunes that lie along the current shoreline. The dunes, recent in age, are mobile or semi-fixed, pale yellow in colour and overlie older Late Quaternary white marine sands. The dunes range between 5m and 35m in height and the mineralised zones, which are essentially flat-lying, average around 15m in thickness.

The GCO deposit comprises a linear series of Aeolian sand dunes containing an HM assemblage concentrated by wind action. The Aeolian or mobile dunes overlie a substratum of former beach sands representing a recessive littoral environment. These sands also contain a lesser HM concentration. The natural water table generally occurs close to the interface between the mobile dune and littoral sand together with occasional peaty materials preferentially located at the dune-littoral sand interface.

The deposits include: Mboro, Lompoul, Diogo, Fass Boye, Yodi, Mboro Hotel and Noto. The deposits extend over a length of about 70km. There is potential for additional deposits beyond the limits of present drilling, both to the south–west and north–east for a total strike length drilled of 75km.

Dimensions
The resource extends for 75km north–east and averages 2km wide. T ........


Mining Methods

  • Dredging
  • Dry mining


Summary:

At the Grande Côte Operations, the extraction operations take place in an artificial mobile basin of 12 hectares and about 6 metres deep and follow a route which is optimised to exploit the deposit. The mining process involves a dredge with a capacity of 7,000 tonnes per hour.

The world’s largest mining dredge (50 meters long and 17 meters wide) operates on a 600-meter long and 300-meter wide artificial pond, 24 hours a day. It moves about 30 meters per day— between 7 and 13 kilometers per year. The extracted sand is sent to the Wet Concentration Plant (WCP), which is connected to the dredge by a 320-meter long pipe.

The path design consists of mining three-dimensional designs defined by digitising. The shape and sequence of mining are controlled by the dredge and the floating plant constraints.

Dredges are well suited to large, free flowing sand deposits where a pond can be maintained. As the orebody consists of free-flowing sands holding an extensive shallow aquifer and high-grade located at the top, the choice of a dredge feeding the floating concentrator is appropriate for this deposit. However, dozer push is introduced to recover adjacent high-grade material to the mine path within 100m distance and slope angle of 15°.

No pre-strip is required. All material, within the design, is mined as ore.

Slopes are 35° above water and 14° below.

The optimum dredge pond level, to economically mine at and maintain the ........


Crushing and Grinding


Processing

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Summary:

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Production:
Zircon production data has been presented for premium and standard zircon. Additionally, a lower-grade intermediate zircon is also produced at the Grand Cote operation.

CommodityProductUnits202320222021202020192018
Heavy Minerals Concentrate kt  ......  Subscription required ^  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required774
Zircon Mineral in concentrate kt  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required
Ilmenite Mineral in concentrate kt  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required
HiTi (rutile-leucoxene) Mineral in concentrate kt  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required
^ Guidance / Forecast.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics20222021202020192018
Hourly mining capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required7,000 t7,000 t7,000 t
Ore tonnes mined  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required49.2 Mt49.4 Mt47 Mt
Annual production capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required575 kt of ilmenite mineral in concentrate
Annual production capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required85 kt of zircon mineral in concentrate
Annual production capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required4 kt of rutile mineral in concentrate
Annual production capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required8 kt of leucoxene mineral in concentrate
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Reserves at January 1, 2023:
The mineral resources are considering all the sands between the topographic surface and a level 6m below the natural water table, with a grade higher than the cut-off grade of 0.70% HM.

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven 1,222 M dmt Heavy Minerals 1.44 % 17.6 M dmt
Probable 162 M dmt Heavy Minerals 1.45 % 2.4 M dmt
Proven & Probable 1,384 M dmt Heavy Minerals 1.44 % 20 M dmt
Measured 2,228 M dmt Heavy Minerals 1.19 % 26.6 M dmt
Indicated 712 M dmt Heavy Minerals 1.03 % 7.3 M dmt
Inferred 86 M dmt Heavy Minerals 0.83 % 0.7 M dmt
Total Resource 3,026 M dmt Heavy Minerals 1.14 % 34.6 M dmt


Pipelines and Water Supply
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Heavy Mobile Equipment:
HME TypeModelQuantityRef. Date
Dredge ....................... Subscription required Dec 31, 2022
Loader (FEL) ....................... Subscription required Sep 13, 2023
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 16, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 16, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 16, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 16, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 16, 2023
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Staff:

EmployeesTotal WorkforceYear
Subscription required Subscription required 2022
Subscription required Subscription required 2021
Subscription required Subscription required 2020
Subscription required Subscription required 2019
Subscription required Subscription required 2018

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Fact Sheet 2023
Press Release 2023
Quarterly Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2019
Annual Report 2018
Annual Review 2018
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2018
Fact Sheet 2014
Technical Report 2010
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