BRENNA MATENDERE
BRAVURA Zimbabwe, a subsidiary of Bravura Holdings owned by Nigerian tycoon Benedict Peters, is assembling a dense medium separation (DMS) plant in South Africa to be brought into the country for the processing of the Kamativi Mine dump to produce lithium.
More equipment has been purchased for mechanised platinum mining project in Selous, Mashonaland West province. Bravura was awarded a 3 000-hectare (7 400-acre) concession in Selous, about 80km south-west of Harare.
Bravura says its projects are progressing well, with the lithium operation slated for commercial launch in 2025.
This comes after media reports that Peters is struggling to fund his projects due to financial problems.
The company runs three projects in Zimbabwe — Bravura Platinum, Bravura Lithium and Bravura Iron.
Bravura took local journalists on a South African media tour to showcase of its cutting-edge mechanised mining equipment and state-ofthe-art lithium processing plant, highlighting the company’s commitment to innovative and efficient mining practices.
Reports had suggested Peters is now broke and is failing to fund his mining activities.
This prompted some government officials to demand that his mining claims be repossessed.
However, the company says the Kamativi lithium operation, a 60%:40% joint venture with the government, is on course and is set for commercial launch in 2025.
Bravura runs three projects in Zimbabwe — Bravura Platinum, Bravura Lithium and Bravura Iron.
Bravura hosted a media tour in South Africa last week to showcase showcase work being done to put together the DMS plant and mechanised mining equipment for the Selous project.
The DMS plant is being assembled by Manhattan Corporation, with mechanised mining equipment for the Selous project provided by Epiroc and Sandvik, ready to be freighted to Zimbabwe.
The components of the DMS plant that have been put together so far include the happer bin, vibrating feeder, belt conveyer, vibrating screen and jig separator.
DMS is one of several preconcentration methods used for early waste rejection from run-of-mine ores at relatively coarse particle sizes prior to additional milling and beneficiation. Nigerian tycoon Benedict Peters
The method in the past and across the globe has demonstrated successful separation and upgrading of lithium-based ores using DMS.
Kamativi Tin Mine closed in 1994 due to low mineral prices, leaving behind huge mining dumps that will now be processed for lithium by the DMS plant.
While tin has been exhausted, the dumps contain lithium ore, and there are plans to extract 70 000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate each year, according to Bravura.
Manhattan Corporation chairperson Chris Pouroullis said during a tour of the DMS plant in Johannesburg 95% of the construction fabrication work and 98% of the brought-in items have been completed.
“We don’t envisage any challenges in concluding the project in terms of remaining timeframes,” he said.
“We anticipate, in about six weeks or so, to be complete with all of our f ine tuning fabrication.
“We will continue with some pre-assembly on this site in terms of us assembling components of the plant in South Africa before we ship, which will save us some time on site.
“We will optimise that programme. We will choose the shortest path possible to have the plant up and running. So, if the site is absolutely ready for us to ship a component, we ship it and we start installing it.”
The remaining work includes earthworks, civil installation, and fine-tuning fabrication, which is expected to be completed in six weeks.
The plant’s front end processes 600 tonnes per hour of lithium ores, which then flows into a 300 tonnesper-hour wash plant, followed by a 150 tonnes per hour DMS section.
This results in approximately 10 tonnes per hour of spodumene product, depending on the feed grade.
The Kamativi dump contains around 2.5 million tonnes of spodumene, with 50% suitable for processing through the DMS plant.
This translates to an annual capacity of 70 000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate.
The Kamativi plant is expected to operate on a day-night cycle, with the front end running during the day and stockpiling material for night-time processing, allowing the mining fleet to operate solely during the day for safety reasons.
The project’s completion is expected to create jobs and facilitate skills transfer. Bravura has completed exploration work at its platinum project in Selous and is conducting feasibility studies before actual mining and processing plant construction begins.
Mechanised mining equipment, that include dumpers, rigs, bolters, drillers among others, are ready to be brought to Zimbabwe.
The equipment, according to Bravura Zimbabwe project geologist Farirai Kambanje, will be used to create a box cut, a small open cut that provides a safe and secure portal to access the underground mine.
“The equipment is waiting for processing of import licences and other smaller arrangements, but we are confident of kickstarting mechanised mining in Selous once the equipment has been shipped,” he said.
