Tete Project – Overview
The Tete Project, covering an area of 632km², is located immediately north of the provincial capital of Tete and shares licence boundaries with Vale and Rio’s mega coal projects. The project is strategically located to access abundant, low tariff hydro-electric power from existing and developing schemes on the Zambezi River. Sealed highways pass through Tete and existing rail lines to the ports of Beira and Nacala are in the process of refurbishment. Multiple daily flights service Tete's international airport.
The project contains two areas of magnetite-titanium-vanadium mineralisation; the Singore area to the south and the Massamba Group in the north. The Massamba Group is composed of a cluster of four prospects (Chitongue Grande, Chimbala and South Zone forming a north-south, 8km long trend and the Tenge/Ruoni prospect, 7km to the east. The entire Tete Mafic Complex, which is analogous to the Bushveld,has experienced little or no historical exploration.
The Company commenced exploration initiatives in mid 2008 and has focused its efforts to date on the Massamba Group area. The Singore area remains largely untested, but highly prospective.
Work completed by the Company to late 2011 has resulted in a JORC resource of 324 million tonnes, with a target of 500 million tonnes once assay work is completed. Independent scoping metallurgical studies and financial modelling initially indicated positive project economics in the production of high quality titano-magnetite/vanadium and titanium concentrate commodities. A later scoping study, comleted in November 2011, has shown extremely attractive economics in proceeding through to mine-mouth smelting to produce pig iron on site.
Baobab has entered into a strategic partnership with International Finance Corporation (IFC), the commercial arm of the World Bank, at both the corporate and project equity levels.
Resource Drilling Programme – South Zone Prospect
Due to the significant widths and interpreted lateral continuity of mineralisation at the South Zone, the prospect was prioritised for step-out reverse circulation (RC) drilling. The programme has systematically assessed a sequence of seven mineralised zones (Blocks 1 to 7) over a strike length of some 2km, drilling on traverses spaced 100m apart.
Drilling in all Blocks has intersected stacked, 50m to 200m wide sequences of steeply dipping, heavily mineralised packages. The Blocks are generally oriented north-south and are cross cut by northeast striking dolerite dykes.
Internationally respected consultants, Coffey Mining Pty Ltd (‘Coffey’), were commissioned to complete a resource estimate at South Zone, which currently stands at 113 million tonnes.
Resource Drilling Programme – Tenge/Ruoni Prospect
Drilling at Tenge/Ruoni is progressing rapidly. Drilling has intersected a heavily mineralised package varying in thickness from 60m to 150m. Mineralisation has been synformally folded with the fold hinge plunging gently to the west-northwest. Exploration campaigns in the prospect area have been divided into three resource blocks:
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Ruoni North: representing 1km of strike along the northern limb of the fold. Thirty seven RC and diamond holes have been completed to date across seven traverses for an aggregate total of 5,750m. Drilling has intersected a robust package of mineralisation from surface dipping at 25° to 45° to the southwest. A resource of 93 million tonnes has been calculated.
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Ruoni South: representing 1.2km of strike along the southern limb of the fold and located approximately 1km south of Ruoni North. Twenty seven for an aggregate of 5,200m holes have been drilled resulting in a resource of 56 million tonnes. Mineralisation in the Ruoni South area is generally steeper dipping (c.65° to the north). The deposit reports a head grade of 34% Fe with an average concetrate grade of 62% Fe, 0.9% V2O5 and 8% TiO2 at a mass recovery of 34%.
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Tenge: representing the hinge zone of the fold and covering an area of approximately 0.5km². Drilling which was completed late in December 2011 has defined a substantial package of mineralisation, approximately 120m thick dipping shallowly to the west. Samples are at the lab awaiting assay early in 2012.
Resource Drilling Programme - Chitongue Grande Extensions
An expansion resource drilling campaign at Chitongue Grande has been completed with thirty six reverse circulation (RC) holes drilled for an aggregate total of 6,275m, increasing the resource here to 61 million tonnes.
