Australia mining firm, Lotus Resources Limited, yesterday announced an Accelerated Restart Plan for its Kayelekera Project in Malawi (Kayelekera) following completion of Front-end Engineering and Design (Feed).
Feed is an engineering design approach used to control project expenses and plan a project before a fix bid quote is submitted.
In a statement on Tuesday, the miner said it is now well positioned to conduct low capital intensity, accelerated restart of Kayelekera.
The firm has reduced the time for first uranium production to between eight and 10 months from the initial 15 months by phasing in the completion of non-essential site infrastructure such as grid power and acid plant rebuild beyond first production.
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It notes that the Accelerated Restart Plan reduces initial restart capital (via a phased approach) by focusing on capital items essential to the restart, with the remaining capex continuing off the critical path to optimise operations and cost structure.
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According to Lotus, the initial restart capital expenditure to first uranium production has been reduced by $38 million from $88 million to $50 million.
Lotus Resources Limited Chief Executive Officer Greg Bittar said his firm is well positioned to take advantage of the continuing strength in the term uranium price and the strong uranium demand outlook.
“Our thorough Feed process has provided the foundation for us to optimise and accelerate our restart plans for Kayelekera, taking advantage of the existing plant and infrastructure.
“By sequencing the capital spend and targeting the critical restart items we reduce the amount of initial restart capital, which allows us to turn the plant on much earlier than previously contemplated,” Bittar said.
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He added that by decoupling the restart timetable from the long lead items which are not on the operational critical path, principally the connection to the power grid and acid plant rebuild, they are able to start the plant well ahead of the original Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) schedule of 15 months.
In July, the government, through the Ministry of Mining and the Ministry of Finance, signed Mining Development Agreements with Lotus Africa Limited and Lancaster Exploration.
Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda observed during the signing ceremony that the start of the mining operations would help it generate the much-needed foreign exchange for Malawi.
He added that the mining activities would help to create jobs for young people who will be working in the mines.
