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Bindura Nickel Corp (BNC)

Full name:

Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC)

Mwana interest:

Mwana Africa Holdings (Pty) Limited acquired a controlling interest (52.9%) in BNC from Anglo American Corporation of Zimbabwe in 2003. BNC is listed on the Zimbabwean Stock Exchange.

Assets and operations:

The company owns and operates the Shangani and Trojan nickel mines, which have hoisting and treatment capacity of 1.0Mt and 1.1Mt a year respectively.

Construction of an upgraded concentrator at Trojan, designed to improve nickel recovery and reduce the talk content of the concentrate, was completed in February 2008. Other projects include the redeepening of the Trojan shaft, and construction of a conveyor decline at Shangani.

BNC also owns the Bindura Smelter and Refinery complex which produces high quality nickel cathodes, copper sulphide and cobalt hydroxide. Alongside material from the Trojan and Shangani mines, the plant has toll treated nickel concentrates and nickel matte from third parties to utilise spare capacity. Current smelter capacity is 17,000tpa and for the refinery 14,500tpa. Construction of an oxygen injection plant was completed in 2008.

BNC also owns the large Hunters Road nickel deposit which is a pre-development nickel project.

Current status and prospects:

The Shangani and Trojan mines and the Bindura Smelter and Refinery complex were placed on care and maintenance in November 2008 as a result of continued production difficulties and a sharp decline in the price of nickel. As part of the care and maintenance programme, further expenditure on capital projects has been put on hold.

Management is seeking to restart the BNC assets in a phased manner. The first phase is to restart the Trojan mine and to sell Nickel in concentrate. BNC announced in February 2011 that it had signed an offtake agreement with Glencore International who will purchase the concentrate produced by Trojan. BNC continues to seek finance to fund the restart of operations.

In early 2011, in anticipation of the re-start of operations, management carried out a program of works aimed at overhauling certain key components of engineering and operational infrastructure. These works funded from the BNC balance sheet, included the main pumping arrangements, ventilation fans and a replacement program of shaft guides. On surface the waste handling system was re-engineered together with a major overhaul of the surface secondary and tertiary crushers.

Preparatory work for the restart of operations included the commencement of limited underground development (approximately 500m development completed) allowing the commissioning of underground LHDs, rigs and associated mining and engineering services together with shaft systems. Ore and waste hoisted to surface allowed the successful hot commissioning of the surface waste conveyors and ore crushing facilities. The objective of the program was to de-risk the planned restart program in anticipation of project funding. The management team at BNC has been retained during care and maintenance and have been re-mobilised and actively engaged in the pre-start programme.

Reserves and Resources

Note:

• The effective date for the Trojan resource statement is March 2010, and, the effective date for the Shangani resource statement is August 2008.
• The effective date for the Hunters Road resource estimate is May 2006. The JORC compliant Hunter’s Road resource of 36,437kt is found in the West Ore body of Hunter’s Road and includes 2,377kt of resource which forms part of a 30m cap of oxide ore mineralisation. In addition, in 1993, an Anglo American MinRED estimate showed 11,000kt grading 0.43% Ni approximately 600m east of the West Ore body of Hunter’s Road which is not included in the resource shown above.