[miningmx.com] — SEPFLUOR, the unbundled fluorspar assets of diversified investment group Sephaku Holdings, has embarked on a fundraising drive to finance the development of its proposed R2.1bn mine and beneficiation plant outside Bronkhorstspruit in north-eastern Gauteng.
CEO Alan Smith told journalists on Wednesday the group has initiated discussions with Nedbank over the raising of capital for the R900m Nokeng mine and R1.2bn beneficiation plant. He said the funding would probably consist of a 60/40 debt-to-equity mix, with the group planning to relist on the JSE no later than March 2013.
Construction of the Nokeng mine and associated concentrator is expected to begin during the fourth quarter of this year, with first production scheduled for the second quarter of 2014. Nokeng’s current life of mine is 19 years.
At full production, Smith said, the open pit mine is expected to produce between 185,000 and 130,000 tonnes per year (tpa) of acid grade fluorspar for SepFluor’s own fluoro-chemical beneficiation hub and up to 30,000 tpa of metallurgical grade fluorspar for local and export steel markets.
The beneficiation plant will be built 50km from Nokeng at the Ekandustria industrial site, with construction expected to shadow the development of the mine.
Fluorspar is used in the production of hydrogen fluoride and also has end uses in the manufacture of steel and aluminium.
Smith said SepFluor would utilise some 42,000 tpa of its own manufactured hydrogen fluoride to flow directly to the manufacturing of 60,000 tpa of aluminium tri-fluoride, to be supplied to local and international aluminium smelters.
Nokeng is situated next to the world’s biggest fluorspar mine, the 200 years life-of-mine Vergenoeg asset which Metorex sold to Spain’s Minersa in 2009. Smith said Nokeng would be one of the lowest cost fluorspar producers in the word, at around $100 per tonne, whereas the mineral is currently selling at around $430/tonne.
“There is no shortage of people that would like to get their hands on our products,’ Smith said.
SepFluor owns three other projects – two in Limpopo an one in Gauteng – all of which are at exploration stage. The company, the brainchild of mining entrepreneurs David Twist an Rudolph du Bruin, was spun off from Sephaku in March.
