Base Resources lifts guidance at Kwale Mineral Sands

African mineral sands producer Base Resources updated its 2020 financial year production guidance for the Kwale Mineral Sands Operations in Kenya on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said that, since it started mining on the South Dune orebody in July, it had encountered higher rutile and marginally lower ilmenite than expected in the mineral assemblage, with zircon largely as forecast.

In addition, due to the mineral characteristics of the South Dune ore, separation efficiency had improved, when compared with the Central Dune ore, and recoveries for all products in the mineral separation plant were higher, particularly for rutile and zircon.

With the expectation that those trends would continue, in conjunction with higher mining volumes achieved year to date, Base Resources said its production guidance for all products had been revised upwards for the 2020 financial year.

For rutile, its guidance had increased to between 75,000 and 81,000 tonnes, from 64,000 to 74,000 tonnes.

Ilmenite guidance was now between 335,000 and 355,000 tonnes, from an original guidance of 315,000 to 350,000 tonnes, and zircon expectations had increased to 29,000 to 32,000 tonnes, from 25,000 to 28,000 tonnes.

Base Resources said the updated guidance was based on a number of assumptions, including total mining of 18.7 million tonnes, up from 18.0 million tonnes, at an unchanged average grade of 3.58%, with the remainder of the 2020 volume coming entirely from ore reserves.

It also assumed an average mineral separation plant feed rate of 79 tonnes per hour, up from 75tph, with average mineral separation plant product recoveries of 102% for rutile, up from from 99%; 101% for ilmenite, rising from 100%; and 85% for zircon, compared to a previous 77%.