Suppliers News (November 13, 2006)

Katanga secures more pieces of copper mine

Katanga Mining (KAT-T, KATFF-O) has placed orders for several components needed to develop the Kamoto copper mine in Katanga province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Atlas Copco will supply a mining fleet to subsidiary Kamoto Copper Co. for US$13.3 million — less than was budgeted in the project’s feasibility study. Vehicles in the fleet are scheduled to begin arriving on-site in March 2007.

Furthermore, a division of engineering firm Hatch will supply two 400-tonne-per-day industrial copper concentrate roasters, which will be added to the flow sheet about a year after production starts. The first roaster is expected to be working in mid-2008.

Katanga is slated to produce more than 150,000 tonnes copper and 5,000 tonnes cobalt per year. Copper and cobalt have been mined in Katanga for more than 70 years.

Scorpio finds deals at Mexican mill sale

Vancouver-based Scorpio Mining (SPM-T, SMNPF-O) recently found a small fortune in used milling equipment at the decommissioned San Manuel polymetallic mine in Sonora state, Mexico.

Scorpio bought a ball mill, 800-hp motor, base plates, gears, hydraulics and other equipment.

The components will be transported to Scorpio’s Nuestra Senora mine, located 10 km east of the town of Cosala in Sinaloa state, Mexico. Unloading and construction work will be aided by the company’s 70-tonne capacity crane, currently at Nuestra Senora.

“As we continue our underground development and exploration of the Nuestra Senora deposits, construction of a mill access road and planning for the electric power line is also in progress,” says Peter Hawley, Scorpio president and CEO.

Drilling continues at Nuestra Senora. Scorpio has yet to make a production decision on the property.

Corriente to buy Mirador mill equipment from Metso

Corriente Resources (CTQ-T, ETQ-X) has a deal in place with engineering firm Metso Brasil Industria e Comercio to supply the major components of the processing facility at the Mirador copper-gold project in Ecuador.

The equipment package will cost roughly US$27 million and includes a crusher, semi-autogenous grinding mill and ball mill.

Construction of the Mirador project should be done by late 2008, with commissioning taking place by the end of the year.

“The availability of key mill components is one of the major bottlenecks facing new mine developments around the world,” says Ken Shannon, CEO of Corriente.

“We are pleased to be able to reach reasonable economic terms with Metso and at the same time be assured the equipment will be delivered to meet the scheduled mine startup.”

Metso Brasil Industria e Comercio is a business unit of Metso Corp., a global engineering and technology firm with revenue of US$5.36 billion in 2005 and about 22,000 employees.

PotashCorp buys underground safety equipment

Potash Corp. of Saskachewan (POT-T, POT-N), the world’s largest potash company, has chosen to buy some underground communications equipment from Toronto-based NL Technologies (NLT).

The equipment, ordered from Levitt-Safety, a distributor of NLT technology in eastern Canada, includes the company’s trademark Northern Light Digital network, asset tracking, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology.

The digital network will allow PCS New Brunswick to track its underground vehicles in real time through the system’s proprietary software. Talking to people in the vehicles will be possible through the VOIP system handsets. The improved communications system should make the operation safer.

“The good people at PCS were a bit skeptical when we first told them they could have (an Internet network) underground,” Richard Oxby, vice-president of engineering with NLT. “So we went out to the mine, set the network up and showed them that it was possible.”

The whole system will be installed early next year.

NL Technologies (NLT) has been designing and manufacturing equipment for the underground mining industry for more than 20 years.

Debswana chooses Gemcom

Gemcom Software International (GCM-T, GEMCF-O), a provider of mining software and services, has sold $680,000 worth of software to Debswana Diamond Co.’s Orapa diamond mine in South Africa.

“Several years ago, we worked with Debswana’s Jwaneng operation to help them improve efficiency at the mine by enabling timely, accurate information to be exchanged between interdependent functions such as geology, planning, surveying and scheduling,” explains Warren Johnstone, managing director of Gemcom’s African operations.

Gemcom will design a similar system for Orapa.

“Every mining operation faces unique challenges because of the unique nature of the deposit it is seeking to extract,” says Polite Khutjwe, mineral resources manager at the Orapa and Letlhakane diamond mines. “By working with Gemcom, we have gained the capability to make more informed decisions because of the on-demand availability of quality data.”

Debswana Diamond is owned in equal shares by the government of Botswana and De Beers.

Debswana is the world’s leading diamond producer by volume.

Established in 1985, Gemcom boasts such clients as Alcoa, BHP Billiton, Codelco, CVRD, De Beers and Newmont.