Canadian mining firm Reunion Manganese Inc says that in another two years’ time it will know whether there is enough manganese for commercial operations at a Matthews Ridge, North West District site where it is currently conducting exploratory studies.
A feasibility study is expected to commence just after the first quarter of 2012, which the company is hoping will guide its future operations.
In September 2010, the company obtained four prospecting licences to conduct exploratory and developmental activities for manganese in the North West District of Guyana over an area of 45,729 acres within and around the former manganese mines at Matthews Ridge and at Pipiani, which ceased operating in 1968.
In March this year, the company announced that it had concluded a Mineral Agreement with Guyana which sets out the fiscal terms and conditions for the exploration, development, and mining of the manganese project.
Chief Operations Officer of Reunion Manganese Inc, Joachim Bayah, during an exclusive interview with the Guyana Times International on August 18, said he is optimistic that in approximately two years’ time his company would be able to announce its official operation here. “Our interest is to look at all the growing steel demand and all the interest, to look at whether there are enough resources in the ground to make it a viable operation again,” he said.
He noted that Reunion Manganese Inc is the subsidiary of the Canada-based Reunion Gold Inc, which explores for gold and other minerals in the Guiana Shield.
“It is principally focused on manganese in Guyana. We are not looking at gold or anything like that; so we are dealing with manganese. That is not to say if there is any interest in gold property that we wouldn’t look at it.” However, he noted that his company’s operation in the Matthews Ridge, Region One area is not novel, as manganese mining was done in that area in the 1960s. “Matthews Ridge is an old existing mine, it is not a green field. It is a brown field site, and we have a lot of pit walls and other scrap from the old operation.” The company is currently in its research mode, and is hoping that by the end of such, “we have to predict whether we are going to make a million tons a year or half a million tons a year, and with what consistency… People look for a certain level of consistency and guarantee, and Matthews Ridge has been a transit point for a lot of people going to the North West to make gold. And having a stable and promising up coming operation has been, and will continue to be, a very big boost to the area.” Additionally, the company has started digging trenches (trenching), and has, since the start of its operations, contracted three companies to drill the manganese-ferrous hills of Matthews Ridge.
“What we are doing is exploration, meaning we are exploring to find out if there are enough resources in the ground… while we are drilling and sampling, we have to do methodological testing to find out what quality of product we can produce and we can bring to market.” Reunion has been executing a trenching programme at the former mine to outline and confirm continuity of mineralisation, and has commenced an aggressive 24,000- metre drilling programme comprising 220 holes with the objectives of confirming the historical mineral resources within the trenched zone and defining an NI 43- 101 compliant mineral resource within, alongside and beneath all mined areas.
The company has also initiated metallurgical testing of all samples for existing minerals to define potential manganese product and recovery parameters, with two batches of samples (two tons) from the trenching programme being sent to Bateman Engineering in South Africa to be processed and analysed.
“We are going to find out how we can upgrade it and make concentrates that the market will accept.”
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