togo decision in december

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Carbonated phosphates: decision in December
After much humming and hawing, the Togolese authorities have finally decided to continue with the tender for the development of the country’s carbonated phosphates. The firms Elenilto Mining Minerals (Israel, already active in iron ore in Liberia), Coromandel GETAX Phosphates Pvt Ltd (India-South Africa) and Balamara Resources Limited (formerly Sultan, in Australia) have been qualified for the final round of the contest. Barring last minute changes, the winner is expected to be announced before the end of the year.

Last week’s appointment of telecommunications expert El Hadj Tairou Bagbiegue (see P. 1) as mines and energy ministry injected fresh impetus into the project. No sooner had the mines minister been named than Togolese president Faure Gnassingbe called for the tender for the carbonated phosphates to continue. Worried that some suitors lacked the technical and financial resources for the very heavy investments involved in the project, Patrick Date Tevi Benissan, secretary-general in the president’s office, had advocated that the whole process start all over again.

Togo is looking for a high-profile operator to mine layers of carbonated phosphates whose reserves were estimated at 2 billion tons in 2010. The project could call for an investment of CFA 200 billion, particularly for the construction and operation of a plant to produce phosphoric acid.



A lot on new minister Bagbiegue’s plate
The former head of Societe des Postes du Togo (SPT), El Hadj Tairou Bagbiegue, has been named minister for mines and energy, a post that had been vacant for months. A lot of tough challenges await him.

Bagbiegue’s most momentous task will be to turn mining into a prime sector of the economy by pursuing the goals laid down by his predecessor, namely by adopting an ambitious mining policy and breathing fresh life into the phosphates industry dominated by Societe Nouvelles des Phosphates du Togo (SNPT). He will also have to ensure that manganese production begins at Nayeba - in principle by the end of next year - and oversee the iron ore project at Bandjeli and a marble scheme at Pagala.

Owned by the Australian group Ferrex, Nayega is thought to contain between 13 and 15 million tons of manganese. The project provides for the extraction of roughly 1 million tons of raw ore per year to produce roughly 175,000 to 250,000 tons of manganese. But Lome also hopes to start producing carbonated phosphate shortly with a more effective and profitable process than conventional methods, with a potential output of between 5 to 6 million tons per annum (see).

A member of the Moba ethnic community in the town of Daopong in Togo’s savannah region (650 km from Lome), Bagbiegue, a telecommunications engineer by training, is both close to president Faure Gnassingbe and a grandee of the ruling Union pour la Republique party. The mines portfolio remained vacant when Togo’s new government was set up on July 31. During the uncertain interval, Prime Minister Kwesi Seleagodji Ahoomey-Zuni and Patrick Date Tevi Benissan, current secretary-general in the president’s office saw to outstanding mining issues.