TIDMBMN
RNS Number : 6366R
Bushveld Minerals Limited
13 December 2016
13 December 2016
Bushveld Minerals Limited
("Bushveld" or "the Company")
Greenhills Resources agrees Heads of Terms to acquire a
significant interest in the Uis tin project in Namibia
Bushveld Minerals Limited (AIM: BMN), a diversified mineral
development company with projects in South Africa and Madagascar,
is pleased to announce that it has agreed terms to acquire a
significant interest in the Uis Tin project through its wholly
owned subsidiary, Greenhills Resources Limited ("Greenhills
Resources"). Under the Agreement Greenhills Resources will acquire
49% interest in Dawnmin Africa Investments Ltd ("Dawnmin") which is
the 85% owner of the Uis Tin Project (the "Project"), subject to
due diligence, from a consortium of Namibian shareholders (the
"Sellers").
Erongo Tin Ltd ("Erongo") holds the 50.5% majority of the issued
share capital of Dawnmin not held by the Sellers. The Sellers
comprise: Namuis (Pty) Ltd, Havana Investments (Pty) Ltd and
Sweltering Desert Investments (Pty) Ltd.
The Uis Tin Project is one of the largest undeveloped opencast
hard rock tin deposits in the world and has a history of
significant tin mining. It is located in the Erongo Region of
Namibia and comprises three mining licenses, ML 134, ML 129 (B1 and
C1) and ML 133. Historic work confirmed a significant tin resource
on all three licenses, the most significant of which is the ML 134
resource estimated at 70.3Mt at 0.14% Sn for a total potential
resource of over 90kt of contained tin. Further information
regarding the project, its history and resources are set out
below.
The Project is held by Guinea Fowl Investments Twenty Seven
(Pty) Ltd, which is owned 85% by Dawnmin Africa Investments Ltd
(the remaining 15% being held by Small Miners of Uis, a company
wholly owned by the Namibian Government).
Greenhills Resources, Bushveld's tin platform, was established
to develop a pan-African portfolio of tin assets with a near term
production profile. The company continues to advance its stated
strategy to build a critical mass of tin resources with a near term
production profile, to advance the projects towards production and
to establish Greenhills Resources as a standalone tin platform
offering exposure to a pan-African tin portfolio to investors.
Under the terms of the agreement, Greenhills Resources commits
to conduct due diligence on the Uis Tin Project, following which,
if a successful outcome is attained, Greenhills Resources intends
to acquire the initial 49% shareholding for a consideration equal
to 41,000,000 ordinary shares in Bushveld Minerals (a total
sterling amount of approximately GBP0.65m at the closing price on
12 December 2016). The agreement provides for Greenhills Resources
to conduct due diligence on the Project over the period to 31 March
2017. The proposed acquisition is also subject to, inter alia,
regulatory approvals and negotiation of definitive agreements,
including a share purchase agreement.
Fortune Mojapelo, CEO of Bushveld Minerals, commented:
"The completion of the potential acquisition would see Bushveld
Minerals acquire a substantial interest in one of the largest
undeveloped opencast hard rock tin deposits in the world
positioning Greenhills Resources as one of the most significant tin
platforms on AIM.
This development is aligned with our long-stated strategy to
establish Greenhills Resources Limited and Lemur Resources Limited
as attractive stand-alone platforms with quality strategic partners
and strong dedicated management teams to deliver long term
shareholder value. For Greenhills this means consolidating a
critical mass of mineable, low-cost resources with a near term
production profile while for Lemur this means securing a quality
power purchase agreement and an IPP license for a thermal
coal-based power generation play in Madagascar.
All this while the Company continues to progress its flagship
vanadium platform and progress towards completing the Vametco
Alloys (Pty) acquisition."
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse
Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014.
Enquiries: info@bushveldminerals.com
Bushveld Minerals
Fortune Mojapelo +27 (0) 11 268 6555
Beaufort Securities
Jon Bellis +44 (0) 20 7382 8300
Strand Hanson
Andrew Emmott / Ritchie Balmer +44 (0) 20 7409 3494
Blytheweigh
Tim Blythe / Camila Horsfall +44 (0) 20 7138 3204
Gabriella von llle +27 (0) 711 121 907
ABOUT BUSHVELD MINERALS LIMITED
Bushveld Minerals is a diversified AIM listed mineral
development company with a portfolio of vanadium, iron ore, tin and
coal greenfield assets in Southern Africa and Madagascar. The
Company's flagship platform, the vanadium platform, includes the
Mokopane Vanadium Project, the Brits Vanadium Project, and the
Bushveld Iron Ore & Titanium Project. The tin platform
comprises the Mokopane Tin Project whereas the Imaloto Coal
Project, which is being developed as one of Madagascar's leading
independent power producers, makes up the Company's coal
platform.
The Company's vision is to become the largest low cost
integrated primary vanadium producer through owned low-cost
high-grade assets. This includes the development and promotion of
the role of vanadium in the growing global energy storage market
through Bushveld Energy, the Company's energy storage solutions
provider. Whilst the demand for vanadium remains largely anchored
in a slow growing steel industry, Bushveld Minerals believes there
is a strong potential for imminent significant global vanadium
demand surge from the fast-growing energy storage market,
particularly through the use and adoption of Vanadium Redox Flow
Batteries.
Bushveld Minerals' approach to project development recognises
that whilst attractive project economics are imperative, they are
insufficient to secure capital to bring them to account. A clear
path to production with a visible timeframe, low capex requirements
and scalability are important factors in retaining an attractive
exit option. This philosophy is core to the Company's strategy in
developing projects. Detailed information on the Company and
progress to date can be accessed on the website:
www.bushveldminerals.com
About The Uis Tin Project
The Uis Tin Project Ownership Structure
The Uis Tin Project is held by Guinea Fowl Investments Twenty
Seven (Pty) Ltd, which is 85% owned by Dawnmin Africa Investments
and 15% by Small Miners of Uis, a Namibian Government owned
subsidiary. Dawnmin Africa is a company owned 51.5% by Erongo Tin
Limited and 49.5% by a consortium of Namibian shareholders
comprising Namuis (Pty) Ltd, Havana Investments (Pty) Ltd and
Sweltering Desert Investments (Pty) Ltd.
Project Location
The Uis Tin Mine is located in the west of central Namibia,
approximately 130km east of the Atlantic Ocean coastline in the
Erongo Region in Namibia. Swakopmund, the capital city of the
Erongo Region and Namibia's fourth largest settlement, is
approximately 165km due south of the Uis Project while the Namibian
capital city of Windhoek is located approximately 270km southeast
of the Uis Project. Tin (and tantalum) bearing pegmatites are found
on three existing mining licenses (ML 129, ML 133 and ML 134), all
of which are located within 35 km of the Uis town in Namibia.
Project Licenses
ML 134 contains numerous pegmatites which have been mined
partially, and which have historical (non-JORC) reserve estimates.
ML 133 contains a smaller tin/tantalite mine in a group of
pegmatites known as the Naisnais Pegmatites, which have been
partially exploited. ML 129 contains a small pegmatite that has
been mined on a small scale by local artisanal miners.
-- ML134 located within the Uis Pegmatite Belt. This area is
regarded as the primary target area of the Uis Tin Project which
hosts the historic Uis Tin Mine which commenced production in 1924,
ceasing in 1990. Today it comprises of the historic open pits,
waste rock dumps, tailings storage facility, derelict mine
infrastructure buildings and defunct processing plant. The Uis Tin
Mine historically exploited the most important tin deposit of
Namibia, a deposit which ranks among the largest of its type in the
world;
-- ML129 located within the Uis Pegmatite Belt. This area hosts
the B1 and C1 pegmatite tin and tantalum deposits which have been
historically explored, from which a historic "resource" and
"reserve" statements exist (non-JORC compliant), and is currently
being mined on a small scale by the Small Miners of Uis (SMU);
and
-- ML133 within the Nainais-Kohero Pegmatite Belt which hosts
the historic Tin Tan Mine. This mine has been intermittently
operated since the 1920's and is currently mined on a small scale
by the SMU.
Geology
The large and important rare metal pegmatites of the Uis
pegmatite field evolved late in the history of the Damara Orogen.
The Uis pegmatites are large, layered, unzoned, pervasively
albitised and fine- to coarse-grained bodies. The pegmatites appear
on plan as lenticular, linear or slightly sigmoidal shapes that
tend to thicken towards the centre and pinch out rapidly at either
ends.
Licence ML134 contains the historic Uis Tin Mine, where
production commenced in 1924, and has historic "reserves"
sufficient for another 75 years of production. The Uis Tin Mine
historically exploited the most important tin deposit of Namibia, a
deposit which ranks among the largest of its type in the world. The
Uis pegmatites are confined to a narrow regional belt of
metasediments of the Uis Formation that has been preserved in a
graben of a portion of the intracratonic branch of the Damara
Orogen since Proterozoic times. These pegmatites are found within
schistose and quartzose rocks of the Khomas Subgroup, a division of
the Swakop Group, which have been subjected to intense tectonic
deformation and regional metamorphism.
Detailed geological mapping at Uis since 1972 suggests that the
Uis swarm of pegmatites consists of over 100 individual pegmatite
bodies. Zones of country rock alteration may indicate the presence
of mineralised pegmatite deposits as all known pegmatites are
surrounded by a halo of intensely altered, bleached or fractured
rock. The presence of tourmaline in the Damara Orogen is arguably
the single most reliable pathfinder indicator mineral of
mineralised pegmatites. Tourmaline-bearing wall rocks appear as an
envelope completely surrounding the rare metal pegmatites and
follow closely the outline of the pegmatites along strike.
License ML133, colloquially referred to as the Nainais
tin-tantalite deposit, has hosted the historic Tin-Tan Mine, an
area which has been mined and prospected for tin and tantalite on a
stop-start small scale basis since the 1920's. This deposit is
located within the Nainais-Kohero Pegmatite Belt whose pegmatites
have a similar origin of intrusion as those of the neighbouring Uis
Pegmatite Belt.
Four basic mineralised pegmatites have been recognised in the
Nainais deposit area:
-- tin rich pegmatites which have cassiterite concentrated in
altered pegmatite margins which are muscovite-rich with medium to
coarse textures;
-- pegmatites with erratic tin distribution which are complexly
zoned and contain tourmaline. Here the tin is concentrated in the
course-textured rocks;
-- pegmatites with low yet evenly distributed tin content which
are feldspar rich and have a uniform texture in which muscovite
books, tourmaline and garnet occur; and
-- tourmaline-garnet pegmatites hosting no tin.
Mineralisation
Uis Pegmatites (ML 134 and ML 129)
The tin mineralisation of the Uis pegmatites consists of black
cassiterite grains ranging in size from tiny specks to very coarse
grains up to 25mm in diameter with 60% of the grains in the 1mm to
5mm range. High values of up to 15% Sn over 1m or more of sample
length have been recorded within the Uis pegmatites, though the
average grade is generally <0.15% Sn, most commonly 0.12% to
0.13% Sn. The cassiterite is closely associated with albite,
muscovite, sericite and white chlorite in respective alteration
zones and tends to concentrate along fractures in quartz and
orthoclase. Alteration processes affected the pegmatites
erratically with variable intensity. Some degree of albitisation is
evident throughout the pegmatite body. Besides Sn, the rare metals
of Ta and Nb have historically been produced as by-products. The
pegmatites are not the only carriers of rare metals and tin with
various quartz veins, fault breccia's, tourmaline-bearing
metasediments and biotite schists having been recorded with Sn
grade, where in some instances this exceeds the grade of the
pegmatites.
Nainais Pegmatites (ML 133)
Tin mineralisation occurs in pegmatites within Damara schists or
the Salem granites where two distinct styles of mineralisation have
been described:
-- tourmaline-rich pegmatites, which are most common within
those pegmatites that have intruded associated granites and occur
close to intrusive contacts. Here tournamile has replaced quartz
and feldspar within distinct bands on the pegmatite margins, there
is very little mica (muscovite) and is often associated with the
presence of garnet and topaz. Abundant tourmaline is intimately
associated with cassiterite along the altered pegmatite contacts;
and
-- tin-rich pegmatites, the greatest development of which is
within the Damara schists and near to the contacts with associated
granites, but not within the granites themselves. Here alteration
predominates, causing finer grained zones in places with muscovite,
lithium-tourmaline and cassiterite replacing feldspar, quartz and
tourmaline. This secondary cassiterite and lithium-tourmaline is
distributed in zones/bands near to and paralleling pegmatite
margins which is the product of metasomatic replacement of feldspar
and quartz by gaseous solutions containing boron and tin. The best
sites of cassiterite mineralisation are in steeply dipping schists
and in structural bend/fold traps within the host schists next to a
discordant contact with the granites.
Tantalite occurrence and other mineral associations are in
general similar to the cassiterite in schist-hosted altered
pegmatites containing muscovite, lithium minerals and quartz blows.
At Nainais tantalite occurs sporadically in blows of very coarse
grained altered white feldspar/quartz rock with muscovite.
Historical Exploration Work
The Uis tin deposits, specifically those of the Uis Tin Mine,
have been the focus of numerous geological, mineralogical and
metallurgical investigations undertaken by various companies and
academics since its official recorded discovery in 1911. The
definition of historic mineral resource or reserve estimates can be
regarded as "an estimate of the quantity, grade or metal or mineral
content of a deposit that an issuer has not verified as a current
mineral resource or mineral reserve and which was prepared before
the issuer acquiring, or entering an agreement to acquire an
interest in the property that contains the deposit".
The exploration, production and mineral resource information
pertaining to the Uis Project, and specially the Uis Tin Mine, has
therefore been classified as historic exploration information,
historic production and historic mineral resources or reserves. The
outdated nature of the production information and mineral resource
estimates provided in the documentation pertaining to that period
has resulted in the use of the terms "resources", "orebody" and
"ore reserves", which are not compliant with the current
definitions of these terms. The information provided in this
historic ownership section uses such terms in their original
context but it is import important to note that any reference to
the terms "resources", "orebody" or "ore reserves" cannot not be
relied upon.
South African Iron & Steel Industrial Corporation Limited
(Iscor), through its subsidiary Industrial Minerals Mining
Corporation (Pty) Ltd (Imcor), owned the mining and prospecting
licences over the Uis Tin Mine and surrounding areas for the
majority of the Uis Tin Mines production history. The ownership of
the Uis Tin Mine and the historic exploration and production
undertaken by the various exploration/production companies which
held the rights to the Uis Tin Mine are summarised as follows:
-- 1911 Mine was discovered by Dr Paul of the Duetsche Kolonial Gesellschaft.
-- 1923 August Stauch purchases a majority of known tin
orebodies in the Omaruru, Karibib and Usakos districts,
consolidates them into Namib Tin Mines Limited. Production is
attempted on a small scale.
-- 1930 - 1933 Solar Development Company Investigates properties but does not purchase them.
-- 1938 Friedrich Krupp AG Purchases Uis tin rights with plans
to undertake production on a large scale. Outbreak of WW II cancels
all mining plans.
-- Beginning of World War II Custodian of Enemy Property acquires all holdings.
-- 1948 Angus Munro Purchased properties from the Custodian of Enemy Property.
-- 1951 Uis Tin Mining Company (SWA) Limited begins large scale mining.
-- 1958 Imcor (Industrial Minerals Mining Corporation (Pty) Ltd
buys Uis and other properties owned by Namib Tin Mines Limited.
-- 1990 Uis Mine closes owing to collapse of the tin price in the 1980s
-- 1994 Small Miners of Uis begins small scale mining.
-- 2011 Procomex Company undertakes a technical due diligence
assessment which culminate in a bulk sample being collected
-- 2014 Riverdeep Resources compiles historic exploration and
production data in conjunction with the SMU in order to apply for a
Mining Right.
Previous Resource Estimates
Mineral "Resource" and "Reserve" estimations were historically
undertaken by the various owners and explorers of the Uis Project
following closure of the Uis Tin Mine in 1990. These were all
estimated prior to the establishment of the SAMREC Code.
Whilst of significant historic interest, none of the historic
sampling was correlated with a proper quality QA/QC programme and
therefore does comply with current international reporting
standards including those of SAMREC.
-- ML134 - Uis Tin Mine
The most recent historic resource statement pertaining to the
Uis Tin Mine is presented in the May 1989 SRK Life of Mine Plan
Report for the period 1987 to 2063. This statement was historically
reported as a reserve, but should be considered as an equivalent
(historic) current day resource statement. This estimate was
mirrored in the Namibia Small Miners Assistance Center 1989 CPR.
This resource statement considered 16 pegmatite orebodies, all of
which outcropped on surface, each of which was geologically
re-evaluated by Iscor. A total of 70,323,750 tons at a grade of
0.136% Sn was estimated.
-- ML133 - Tin Tan Mine
No historic resource estimate exists for the Tin Tan Mine.
-- ML129 - B1 and C1
In 2001 a project Viability Study document was prepared by
Falconbridge and the SMU to support a loan application for ML129
from the Minerals Development Fund. The resources reported used
results from the exploration work conducted by Falconbridge, which
included results from test pits, trenches, reverse circulation
drilling, core drilling, chip sampling and bulk sampling. A
historic resource of 1,379,906 tons at 738 ppm SnO(2) and 151 ppm
Ta(2) O(5) was estimated.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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