Kalagadi Manganese to seek JV partner

David McKay | Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:45

[miningmx.com] -- KALAGADI Manganese is to double the size of its proposed manganese mine to about 3 million tonnes/year, and said it had received offers to joint venture the R3.2bn project from 16 local and international mining companies.

"We will ask joint venture partners to invest in the whole project to avoid dilution for us," said Daphne Mashile-Nkosi, chairperson of Kalagadi Manganese. Kalahari Manganese is 80% owned by empowerment company, Kalahari Resources.

Chief among companies interested in joint venturing the mine and smelter development is Sino Steel Corporation, Kermas, which controls Samancor Chrome, and Tata, said Mashile-Nkosi. "A shortlist of potential investors will be made tomorrow (June 26) and we hope to have a decision by the end of July."

The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which pumped R60m into the feasibility of the manganese mine, owns 20% of the project. It said it was looking at a number of financing options for the mine and smelter.

The mine will be situated in the northern Cape province with manganese concentrate to be freighted down to Coega, a port and harbour development in South Africa's eastern Cape province. The smelter will produce ferromanganese, estimated to have an initial capacity of about 350,000 tonnes with capacity to expand with a joint venture partner.

Companies such as Kermas were interested in the project for its ferromanganese project but were being asked to invest in the entire project. First production from the manganese mine had been fast-tracked to the fourth quarter of 2008 from an earlier project commissioning of first quarter, 2009.

David Wellbeloved, technical director of Kalagadi Manganese, said a bankable feasibility on the mine, scheduled for completion at the year-end, was expected to show a doubling in ore capacity to 3 million tonnes from 1.5 million tonnes. A planned sintering plant would also double up capacity.

"The shaft design will be the same but we'll have to double the underground machines," he said. The cost of developing the mine will increase to R1.5bn from about R1.1bn although he added that "cost pressures were a worry".

Kalagadi Manganese is not the only company seeking to provide new manganese supply from South Africa. Renova is also near completion of its own ferromanganese operation estimated to represent a $1bn (R7.2bn) investment. Wilrich Schroeder, who is consulting for Renova Group, said details of its planned mine and smelter development would be released shortly.

All these new developments are bad news for existing manganese producers, such as African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) through its unlisted subsidiary, Assmang, and Samancor Manganese, jointly owned by BHP Billiton and Anglo American. They have remarked in the past that the manganese market could not supply significant new production.

Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter

Mashile-Nkosi said recent information suggested steel growth was such as expansions were sustainable. "It just doesn't wash there's limited demand," she said. "We believe we need to fast-track this development to take advantage of the [manganese] price."

Given the high ownership concentration, ARM CEO, Andre Wilkens, is remarkably sanguine about the competition. “Assmang has some of the best manganese on the planet,” he said. “I don’t think it’s likely its market would be displaced by lower quality grade ores.”

ARM mines roughly 2.5 million tonness of ore/year and has plans to build that up to 3.5 million tonnes/year by 2013/2014.

About 80% of the world’s manganese reserves – about 350 million tonnes - are found in southern Africa. By unlocking it suddenly, oversupply may easily result with the consequent dive in manganese prices and profits. The world’s manganese market is currently in oversupply by between 800,000 tonnes and 1 million tonnes.