Alvenius: Aquarius to Algerian Gold
Although by area it is the second largest country in Africa, Algeria is not one of the continent’s major mining economies. There is a tradition of iron ore and phosphate rock mining but overall, the government believes, the nation’s non-hydrocarbon mineral resource base remains underexploited. Progress has been spotty but a fresh start is under way, propelled by the U.K.-based company GMA Resources and suppliers such as Swedish piping specialist Alvenius Industrier. The country’s second gold operation, at Amesmessa, should first pour late in 2007.
The project to exploit gold resources discovered during the 1970s in the province of Tamanrasset started in 1997. The two deposits of first interest, Tirek and Amesmessa, are located 2,400 km south of Algiers, near the southern tip of Algeria and close to the border with Mali. The Enterprise d’Exploitation des Mines d’Or (ENOR) was formed by various financial and industrial state-owned organizations initially to develop a mine at Tirek, which is located toward the northern end of a corridor of gold mineralization that extends about 85 km southward down to Amesmessa. This operation, built with assistance from the South African company MDM, started up in 2001.
Also in 2001, the government introduced a new legal and regulatory system intended to encourage foreign and private investment in mining and in May that year ENOR sought a partner to further develop Tirek and to exploit Amesmessa, possibly at a rate of 90,000 oz/y. The Australian entrepreneur Colin Ikin formed Gold Mines of Algeria (GMA) and proposed to double capacity at Tirek, develop a 650-mt/d operation at Amesmessa, and conduct exploration on ENOR’s 1,400 km2 permit area. A deal was agreed in 2003 but some time after GMA was taken over by GMA Resources plc, which effectively acquired a 52% interest in ENOR through an earn-in by exploration and feasibility funding arrangement that was completed in 2006. Unfortunately, the bankable feasibility study results, based on conventional technology, were not encouraging. However, during the same period, both the shareholder blocks in ENOR underwent changes that have apparently been positive. GMA Resources built a very relevantly experienced management team in London and on-site, and the 48% stake held by Algerian firms was first consolidated into the technically and commercially strong Sonatrach organization and then consolidated with other mining enterprises within one part of Sonatrach.
The new team looked at the options for upgrading Tirek and developing Amesmessa, concluding that a two-track approach at Amesmessa, treating higher and lower ore grades from an open-pit separately would make best use of the reserves available. Higher grade 18 g/mt ore mined selectively from vein structures will be recovered in a 300-mt/d CIL plant and lower grade 4.5 g/mt ore will be heap leached on a 30,000-m2 pad that was completed in May 2007 although drain pipe installation is being finished closer to start-up—presently anticipated in fourth quarter 2007. By building modular and flexible facilities, such as mobile crushing plants, it should also be possible to treat ores from elsewhere in the license area at the same facilities. GMA Resources is of the opinion that the mineralized zone may host up to 5 million oz of gold.
The remote desert location made economic and efficient infrastructure essential and this is where Alvenius and other foreign specialist suppliers came in. A sufficient water supply for processing and human consumption is available from the Tanzerouft well some 45 km from Tirek. But the water is corrosive and labor for pipe laying is scarce. Alvenius Industrier has supplied high quality water pipe to mining industry and other customers for 50 years and its TP-pipe is light weight, can handle pressures up to 70 bar (1,000 psi), is corrosion resistant and comes with either Alvenius or Victaulic type quick couplings or flanges for rapid installation. A first order in 2006 covered pipe and Victaulic couplings for a 44-km run that was delivered early in 2007 and successfully installed. ENOR recently awarded a second set of pipes and fittings for another 58 km, with delivery to start at the end of 2007. Packaged 1-MW electricity generator sets have been delivered to site from the UK, fuel and water storage tanks are completed and the ATCO prefabricated site buildings were completed in September 2007.
Amesmessa has been equipped with Sandvik surface drilling rigs and a 23-machine Caterpillar fleet including dozers, wheel loaders and articulated dump trucks for mining which are covered by a maintenance and service agreement with the manufacturer. The supplier of crushing and screening equipment is possibly less well-known—a French family-owned company called Roc Impact which designs and manufactures conveyors, hoppers, crushers, screens and feeders, typically on a turnkey project basis. The equipment is branded Holland, the name of the family owners. Roc Impact said there are more than 15 complete turnkey plants operating in Africa. A pre-used ball mill is being refurbished for the Tirek plant and the gold recovery and refining equipment has been supplied by the U.S. firm Summit Valley Equipment & Engineering, sourced from Turkey and North America. A modular assay laboratory has been supplied by Unit Electrical Engineering from Canada.
The Algerian government continues to attempt to attract other exploration companies by holding licensing rounds and has succeeded in signing two contracts with a Chinese company, Shaolin, covering one area east of Algiers and one in the Tamanrasset province. For its part ENOR has budgeted $3 million for further exploration of its license area, to cover more geologists, Gemcom software and 20,000 m of RC drilling.