Kazera Global. – Commercial Production is just an Offtake away

Kazera Global PLC (AIM: KZG) is a mining-focused investment company with interests located in South Africa and Namibia.

In this article, we focus on the company's South African interests (Figure 1), where the commencement of production of a heavy mineral sand concentrate and diamonds is imminent.

Figure 1: Kazera’s South African Interests Shown in Orange

Source: Kazera Global

South African Interests

In South Africa, Kazera owns a 70% interest in Whale Head Minerals, a Heavy Mineral Sands operation, located at Walviskop, Alexander Bay, as well as a 74% beneficial interest in the Deep Blue Minerals diamond mining operation, located within the Alexkor Diamond Fields, Alexander Bay. Both companies were acquired by Kazera in June 2020, in the middle of the Covid lockdown. In the following 4.5 years, these projects have gone from being a theoretical concept to the edge of profitable production.

The operations are connected in that the same beach material contains both the heavy minerals and the diamonds. The size and area covered by the two operations licences vary but there is an important overlap, which will allow combined extraction, as the two companies have the right to remove the two different minerals.

The combination of these mineral rights is what allows Kazera to undertake mining activities in this area. Previously heavy mineral sand operators had struggled to get permission to mine the area due to the presence of diamonds, and for previous diamond miners it was uneconomic to extract the diamonds alone.

Walviskop Heavy Mineral Sands Project

The Walviskop Heavy Mineral Sands is one of the assets held by Whale Head Minerals.

The operation is focused on a 5-hectare beach sand deposit that contains an Indicated JORC Code-compliant Mineral Reserve Estimate of 1.5 million tons of heavy mineral sands at an average grade of 49.9% total heavy minerals. The economic minerals of interest within these heavy mineral sands are predominantly ilmenite & garnet.

Kazera has now received all necessary permission to commence mining at Walviskop and has sent samples of its concentrate to various potential off-takers for analysis and to finalise an offtake contract.

Once the offtake is secured the company expects to commence production of up to 3,000 t per month growing to 6,000 t per month, with the potential for the operation to last for at least five years.

Kazera’s management is confident that the wave-induced transportation and deposition of heavy minerals and diamonds will replenish the resource base allowing mining to continue for a much longer period, although no resource replenishment studies have been undertaken.

Perdevlei Heavy Mineral Sands Project

The Perdevlei Heavy Mineral Sands Project is another of the assets held by Whale Head Minerals, located a short distance north of Walviskop. The Perdevlei Project covers a much larger area than Walviskop, 3,095 hectares, of which approximately 170 hectares contain heavy mineral sand deposits targeted for immediate mining.

At Perdevlei, Kazera has applied for a mining right. The Environmental Authorisation has recently been awarded and Kazera is now in a 21-day period during which interested and affected parties may lodge any appeals. Kazera hopes to have the Mining Rights in place early in Q1 2025 and which point the much larger area becomes open to the Company for mining.

No resource or reserve estimate is in place for this project, but based on Kazera’s teams' knowledge of the area,  it is confident that it will be of major economic significance to the Company.

Alexander Bay Diamond Project

The Alexander Bay Diamond Project is located within the Alexkor Diamond Fields, that lie between two historic De Beers operations. Since 1928, 10 million carats have been extracted and it is estimated that there are around another 2 million carats remaining within the project area.

Existing Mining Equipment

At Alexander Bay, Kazera already owns a pulsating jig for diamonds along with a flow sorter designed to recover diamonds and feed bins, a scalper, a portable trommel screen and conveyors designed to process and recover the heavy mineral sands.

An existing front-end loader will excavate the beach material, place it in the feed bins, which pass the material through the scalper to remove the oversized material, with the trommel screen separating the waste from the dense heavy mineral sands and diamonds.

The material is then transported from the tommel to the pulsating jig and flow sorter to remove the diamonds from the heavy mineral sand concentrate. The diamond-bearing concentrate is taken to Alexkor, a South African unincorporated joint venture diamond mining company that falls under the Department of Public Enterprises, for hand sorting, while the heavy mineral sand is further processed through spiral separators to concentrate the valuable minerals.

Next Steps

Once an offtake agreement for the heavy mineral concentrate is secured, Kazera can commence the ramp-up operations to commercial production levels.

Like and Share this Article

If you enjoyed reading this article, please give it a like, and share it with your network.

Subscribe

Subscribe to the Junior Mining Insights Newsletter on LinkedIn https://lnkd.in/eCs-6ji7

Ryan D. Long Junior Mining Insights Newsletter Mining and Metals Research Corporation

Disclaimer

This newsletter has been published by Mining and Metals Research Corporation (“the Company”). The information used to compile the article has been collected from publicly available sources and the Company cannot guarantee the 100% accuracy of those sources. This communication is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer, recommendation, solicitation, to make any investments.  Nothing in this communication constitutes investment, legal accounting or tax advice, a personal recommendation for any specific investor. The Company do not accept liability for loss arising from the use of this communication. This communication is not directed to any person in any jurisdiction where, by reason of that person's nationality, residence or otherwise, such communications are prohibited.  The Company may derive fees from the production of this newsletter.