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Albidon delving for nickel/platinum/cobalt/copper camp in the Munali area of Zambia
By: Tessa Kruger
Posted: '14-FEB-07 13:25' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2006



JOHANNESBURG (Mineweb.com) --Nickel exploration and development company, Albidon, believes a nickel camp is to be found within the Munali intrusion in Zambia and is continuing exploration and drilling here to increase the size of its prime Munali Nickel project and looking at prospective satellite orebodies.

Managing director Dale Rogers said after the Africa Mining Conference held in Livingstone, Zambia, that the Munali intrusion was 2.5km in length, while the company had only drilled out a 1 km corner to obtain its initial resource results.

He said the company had resumed drilling in the area and was mainly focusing its exploration efforts on 800 square metres of land within the intrusion, while it has identified similar rocks on the unexplored side of the Munali intrusion which offered another 2.5 km of resource potential.

“The general expectation is that we will find more nickel in this area,” he said.

The Munali project area comprises the Enterprise Deposit and a number of other nickel prospects in the Munali Intrusion, of which the most advanced is the Voyager prospect to the north of the Enterprise deposit.

Located approximately 60 km from the Zambian capital Lusaka, Rogers pointed out that the project had the benefit of being close to this city as well as the highway, rail transport, power and water supplies.

The company has already demonstrated a mineral resource of 8 million tonnes or material at 1.4% nickel and 0.9g/t platinum group metals (PGM) and the project will produce about 8,500 tons a year of nickel in concentrate for the first eight years of production. The nickel at Munali is in sulphide material which is easier to process than the oxide and lateritic ores which constitute most of the other nickel mining projects around the world at the moment.

Albidon is currently working on the design and engineering of a medium-scale, underground mine, sourcing long lead items and planning to start construction in the second quarter of 2007.

The first deliveries of nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum-palladium concentrate are expected from Munali in the middle of 2008.

The group mandated the European Investment Bank and Barclays Capital to provide remaining funding of up to US$60 million dollars to fund the development of Munali.

Capital costs, including the cost of building a concentrator at Munali ($36 million) totals $65 million, while direct cash costs to produce a pound of nickel are estimated at $2.

The company is listed on both AIM and ASX and has about eight exploration projects for nickel, zinc and uranium in Zambia, Tunisia, Tanzania, Botswana and Malawi.
While its focus is on Munali as it nears production, the company has more than doubled its exploration budget on Albidon leases, including joint ventures, in these countries to over $11 million.

Albidon is the sole owner of Munali.