LSE-listed Kenmare Resources has reported that the first of its two new high-capacity dredges has arrived safely at its Moma titanium minerals mine, in northern Mozambique.

The new dredges form part of the upgrade of Kenmare’s largest mining plant, Wet Concentrator Plant (WCP) A.

Kenmare COO Ben Baxter says the safe beach landing of the first of the two new high-capacity dredges represents a key milestone in the WCP A upgrade project.

He expresses that it marks the start of an exciting quarter, which will see the company start commissioning of the dredges and upgraded plant, ahead of WCP A starting its transition to the Nataka orezone in the fourth quarter.

“While I was on site at Moma last week, I was pleased to see the significant and safe progress being made with the upgrade work. The project continues to progress to plan and we will provide further updates to the market as we progressively de-risk this project during the remainder of the year,” says Baxter.

BACKGROUND

Kenmare explains that the new dredges were fabricated by maritime technology supplier Royal IHC in the Netherlands, each weighing 1 160 t, at 62 m in length, 19 m in width and 18 m high.

The dredges began their journey to Mozambique by sea on June 4. They were transported by Roll Group on a heavy load carrier vessel and anchored to the north of Moma on July 4.

The first dredge was landed on a purpose-built beach landing area, about 2 km from Moma’s dedicated port facilities, on July 18.

Kenmare says the second dredge is expected to be landed on the beach at Moma in the coming weeks.

Both dredges will be transported to the currently dry staging pond by road on platform vehicles called self-propelled modular transporters, which Kenmare used in 2020 for its relocation of WCP B.

The new feed preparation module, which is another element of the upgrade project, is being assembled in the staging pond and the dredges will be placed alongside it.

SEQUENCE OF UPGRADE WORK

Currently, WCP A, which is Kenmare’s largest mining plant, is mining an area alongside the staging pond, the company notes.

Once the new dredges are in place and work on the new feed preparation module is complete, the staging pond will be flooded, and the existing dredges will mine through the wall separating the staging pond and WCP A’s current mining pond.

WCP A’s existing dredges will be detached from the plant and the new dredges will float out of the staging pond to be attached to WCP A.

The existing feed preparation module, which forms part of WCP A, will also be detached from the remainder of the plant and the new feed preparation module will be connected in its place.

Kenmare says this upgrade work is on track to begin in the third quarter and is expected to take three to four weeks.

Once the work is complete, WCP A will begin its transition from its current mining area in Namalope to the Nataka ore zone, which is expected to take about 18 months.

Nataka is the largest ore zone in Moma’s portfolio, representing about 70% of Moma’s 9-billion tonnes of mineral resources.

Kenmare says WCP A is expected to mine in Nataka for the rest of its economic life, which exceeds 20 years, and the transition to Nataka is essential to securing production from Moma for decades to come.