Operations & exploration

Hunter’s Road

Full name:

Hunter’s Road

Mwana interest:

Bindura Nickel Corporation, in which Mwana Africa Holdings (Pty) Limited has a controlling interest (53%), holds the exploration licences to Hunter’s Road.

Geology and history:

The Hunters Road deposit lies in the upper Bulawayan Group within the Gweru-Midlands South Greenstone belt in central Zimbabwe. The Hunters Road nickel deposit is hosted by a serpentinized cumulate komatite, originally consisting mainly of coarse interlocking magnesium rich olivine grains. In some cases accessory pyroxene, sulphides and chromites are present as intergranular/interstitial/intercumulus material. This cumulate komatite is thus essentially dunitic in composition. The orebody is bi-lobate near to surface but appears to merge at depth to form a single entity as in a scissors fault. Although there are different interpretations on the formation of this structure, the most probable on is that the structure is a result of sinistral shear thrusting and repeating the contact and the mineralisation.

The primary magmatic sulphides, which occur interstitially and intergranular to the olivines, are the main source of extractable nickel. The sulphides consisted of pentlandite (±75%), pyrrhotite (±20%) and possibly minor pyrite (<5%) and traces of chalcopyrite. The deposit has been subject to greenshist metamorphism, supergene alteration, and possibly to other, less readily identifiable alteration. The metallurgical extraction of the nickel is, as a result of the multiple stages of alteration, considered critical to the evaluation of the economic exploitation of the orebody.

The Hunters road deposit was discovered by means of a soil geochemical anomaly and was initially explored through trenches. Substantial drilling has subsequently been completed on the deposit to outline the orebody. This comprised 125 percussion holes, amounting to 4,620m, and 183 diamond drill holes amounting to 41,041m drilled. Current work on the project involved modelling of the metallurgical domains identified.

Current status and prospects:

An indicated resource of 33 million tonnes has been defined at an average grade of 0.5% nickel. This resource contains 165,000 tonnes of nickel and can be mined by open pit. In the first phase, a concentrator will be constructed on site to treat 60,000 tonnes of ore per month (tpm) to produce a concentrate of nickel sulphide. The concentrate will be treated at the Bindura smelter and refinery to produce slightly more than 2,000 tonnes of nickel cathode annually. Construction is scheduled start in the last quarter of 2007 with commissioning scheduled for the end of 2008.

Geological maps:

Final pit design

 

Reserves and Resources