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Kermas to apply for mining licence in South Africa

作者：25 發(fā)布時(shí)間：2010-06-04 文字大?。?span id="da">【大】【中】【小】
By: Chanel de Bruyn

UK-based investment holding company Kermas Limited planned to submit an application to convert its prospecting permit for the Stoffberg magnetite project, which it owned in joint venture with multicommodity mining company Petmin, into a mining licence soon, its chairperson Dr Danko Konchar toldMining Weekly Online this week.

Last week, Korean firm Dongbu Steel informed its shareholders that it and South Korean State-owned mining company KORES had signed a memorandum of understanding with Kermas to develop a 1,2-million ton a year pig iron project in South Africa by 2013.

Kermas owned a 75% stake in Veremo Holdings, which held the Stoffberg project, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, through its Frameworks Investments subsidiary, with Petmin holding the remaining 25%.

Both parties have agreed to sell a collective 49% in the Stoffberg project to the South Korean firms.

Konchar explained that the South Korean government had realised that China was investing in and acquiring resources across the world and that it too, would have to secure its own resources for the future now.

Dongbu Steel was also building a new production facility in Korea, for which it would acquire one-million tons a year of pig iron.

Kermas was expecting the parties to spend between $500-million and $600-million on developing the 1,2-million-ton a year operation, which would include the development of a mining operation and a smelter.

Veremo Holdings would provide 51% of this funding, with the balance to be funded by the South Korean firms.

Dongbu Steel would have access to one-million tons a year of the pig iron output, with the remaining 200 000 t to be put on the market.

Konchar said that the Stoffberg project had a titanium iron-ore resource of between 600-million tons and 700-million tons. Geological surveys and exploration work had been completed towards the end of last year.

As the resource contained both iron-ore and titanium, processing plants would be developed in two phases. As part of phase one, the smelter would be built to process iron-ore into pig iron.

A processing plan for the titanium oxide slag was still under consideration as part of a second phase. Tests to determine the most appropriate processing plan would start soon, noted Konchar.

MOGALE ALLOYS

Meanwhile, Konchar, who is also CEO of the Minerals business of Ruukki South Africa, said that detailed engineering for the installation of two additional 60-MVA direct arc furnaces at the Mogale Alloys operation, in Krugersdorp, had now started.

Kermas was the largest shareholder in Ruukki South Africa, which is a subsidiary of Finnish industrial refining group Ruukki.

The installation of these two furnaces, which would increase the operation’s smelting capacity, as well as the construction of a 250-MW to 300-MW power plant at Mogale, was expected to be completed by 2012 or 2013.

Konchar said that each of the two new smelters required 70 MW of power to operate, while the existing smelters required a total of 100 MW of power to operate.

The company was not convinced that South African power utility Eskom would be able to provide it with the required power and was planning to build its own power station.

Ruukki South Africa was hoping to start ordering long-lead items for the construction of the furnaces, as well as the power station, as soon as possible.

It was also retrofitting the existing furnaces at the Mogale operation.

Konchar noted that it would start with the retrofitting early in July and finish the project by September this year.

This R100-million project was expected to improve the productivity of the existing furnaces by between 15% and 20%.

Edited by: Mariaan Webb


Sourced from www.miningweekly.com