KEFI Minerals ramps up prep work at Tulu Kapi

The AIM-traded firm had announced that local, zonal and regional authorities had confirmed their intention to expedite community resettlement on 8 October.

It said on Monday that the authorities had undertaken the necessary preparatory steps to carry out the planned community resettlement in the first quarter of 2019.

The addition field activities in the past week included a number of surveys and inspections, including the completion of a 14km road route survey by the Ethiopian Roads Authority, for a new road required for the project production phase.

A 47 km route survey for electricity transmission lines from the regional main line to the site for the Tulu Kapi sub-station had also been carried out by the Ethiopian Electricity Power Corporation.

The siting of the last geotechnical drilling to enable the final design of foundations for the processing plant and associated infrastructure was also set out, by Lycopodium with independent geotechnical consultants Knight Piesold, while the reconfirmation of compensation calculations had been carried out by the local government.

An inspection of new host lands was currently being carried out by the West Walega Zonal Administration, and follow-up baseline environmental surveys had now been completed by independent consultant Golder Associates.

“The company is pleased to report that the field and community work has intensified now that the 2018 wet season has passed,” the KEFI board said in its statement.

“These developments are progressing in parallel with work on government administrative tasks, construction planning and financing arrangements.

“All parties are focused on construction start-up in early 2019 and first production in the second half of 2020.”