Aim-listed mineral development company Bushveld Minerals will start its Bushveld Iron Ore project, in Limpopo, on an initial low-capital- expenditure (capex) basis, which can be implemented and put into production quickly using existing infrastructure, after which it will be scaled up as further infrastructure and capital become available, says Bushveld Minerals CEO Fortune Mojapelo.

The Bushveld Iron Ore scoping study released last month focused on this initial low-capex phase, he says.

“The project resource, at more than 700-million tons, is substantial and its full potential will be reached when it is developed at scale. This has some limi- tations, though, as the capex, including the infrastructure investment required to get the product to market, would be high and difficult to source under the difficult current market conditions. Therefore, our approach was to define a project with an initial low-capex phase,” Mojapelo tells Mining Weekly.

Bushveld Minerals is opting for a base case of five-million tons a year run- of-mine (RoM) to produce 2.2-million tons a year of concentrate product, which can be achieved using the existing port and rail infrastructure. It will provide the project with the best opportunity to reach production by 2016, with competitive economic parameters.

For the project to be scaled up to more than five-million tons a year RoM, some infrastructure investment would be required, especially with regard to rail infrastructure, he says.

However, one has to keep in mind that State-owned freight logistics group Transnet has identified the Limpopo region as one of the areas in which rail infrastructure development will take place, he says, adding that this upgrade in infrastructure will give Bushveld Minerals the opportunity to scale up its operations.

Mojapelo points out that, depending on market conditions, opportunities for downstream beneficiation will also be considered during the project’s prefeasibility phase.

The prefeasibility study for the project is expected to start this month and to be completed within the first quarter of next year.

“While the scope of the prefeasibility study will be driven by getting the project into production as quickly as possible, some detailed testwork will also be done.

“We are expecting, as part of our prefeasibility outcome, to give a detailed view of what downstream beneficiation would entail,” he explains.

Mojapelo says Bushveld Minerals is confident that it can put forward a globally competitive project on a cost basis, with attractive economics and downstream beneficiation opportunities as well.

While the scoping study was based on only one of the project’s deposits – the P-Q zone – Bushveld Minerals also has a vanadium-rich deposit – the main magnetite layer. The company believes this to be a world-class vanadium resource that will also be developed in future, Mojapelo concludes.