Electric Prospects
PROJECT DIRECTED BY
WRITTEN BY
Liam O’Hara
Romana Moares
Giyani Metals few companies outside of China, which are all long-established. China supplies over 90% of the high purity manganese market. Giyani Metals’ CEO Robin Birchall describes the company’s position: “Demand is increasing for high purity manganese as it is an important commodity in the lithium-ion battery industry. Giyani Metals is developing a sustainable, low-cost, high-margin project in Botswana to meet this demand. What we make is a chemical product. The actual mining is simple, it is the processing that is really the key.” Reverse core drilling at Otse site
He explains that production of HPMSM (High Purity Manganese Sulphate Monohydrate - the product in increasing demand) directly from ore generates a 70%-80% lower carbon footprint than average Chinese production. The refined product does not require further Chinese processing to be sold to battery or cathode makers. This is the advantage that Giyani Metals can offer. In addition to having a high-quality deposit with low impurities, the Company capitalises on highly skilled local labour and the country’s functioning infrastructure. All this makes Giyani Metals a highly attractive partner from an investment point of view.
Robin Birchall, CEO, Giyani Metals
Electric Prospects Giyani Metals is progressing on its high purity manganese opportunity serving the electric vehicle market, ready to play an active part in the European critical supply chain.
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iyani Metals is a mineral resource company focused on becoming one of Africa’s first low-carbon producers of high-purity manganese sulphate precursor materials – used by battery manufacturers for the expanding electric vehicle market – through the promotion of its manganese assets in the Kanye Basin in south-eastern Botswana, within its wholly-owned Botswana subsidiary Menzi Battery (Pty) Limited. High purity manganese is produced by a handful of producers globally, there being only a
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Giyani Metals Right place, right time Robin Birchall, with his multi-lingual skills and extensive international management experience, joined the Company in 2017, following a career in banking and private equity. Under his management the project has made significant advancements, turning a brownfield site into an asset soon to be ready for construction. He says: “We are lucky as Botswana is an easy country in which to operate. It is consistently rated as one of the most attractive African countries for supporting investment in mining, due to favourable tax regulations and efficient government processes.” Botswana is also the number 1 ranked jurisdiction in Africa in terms of investment attractiveness, and 11th most attractive jurisdiction overall (out of 77) according to the Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies 2020. “The country has had a well-established mining industry since independence in the 1960s. It has an educated population, good legislation and the lowest level of corruption of all African In addition, the location of the assets is excellent - five seaports accessible by rail and road, with cost-effective shipping to Asia, Europe and North America,” adds Robin Birchall.
Resources Feature itored for every vehicle in the near future. For some producers, this may be hard to achieve,” says Rob Birchall. Reflecting on market developments, Birchall acknowledges that Europe, particularly its eastern and central part, will be the key region for the new giga factories. While Covid-19 has brought many industries to a halt, plans to build largescale battery giga factories across Europe have remained largely on schedule, and Giyani Metals was pleased to announce that the Company was recently welcomed into membership of the European Battery Alliance EBA250 network.
Manganese Oxide at Otse
Progressing into production The Company’s Kanye Basin prospects consist of 10 prospecting licenses and include the previously-producing Kgwakgwe Hill mine and project (referred to as the K.Hill Project), the Otse and Lobatse manganese prospects, all of which have seen historical mining activities. Giyani is currently undertaking a feasibility study on the K.Hill Project, based on a current development plan to produce around 0.89 Mt of high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate over a 10-year project life. With a recent resource upgrade following in-fill at K.Hill, it is very likely that mine life will extend beyond 15 years without factoring in additional exploration at K.Hill, Otse and Lobatse. Metallurgical test work up to the stock solution stage has been completed and a specialist engineering firm engaged to undertake the crystallisation test work to finalise the process flowsheet for the feasibility study and construction of a demonstration plant.
“Once the process flowsheet is finalised, Giyani Metals will proceed to contracting an engineering firm for the construction of the demonstration plant. Following a peer review of the process flowsheet, it is anticipated that the design-build contract for the demonstration plant will be signed with the objective of the plant being operational in H1 2022,” says Robin Birchall. Giyani Metals has also just conducted the first exploration drilling at Otse manganese oxide (MnO) prospect, the site of two historical mine workings, with a planned reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign, following up on two targets identified with an induced polarisation survey. In all, 66 RC drill holes were completed at Otse and initial results show high-grade mineralisation in multiple holes with intersections in excess of 50% MnO. Otse is located approximately 50 kilometres east of the K.Hill Project and is connected by a well-maintained, sealed road network. Any future production from Otse can easily be trucked to the location of the proposed process plant adjacent to the K.Hill Project.
Giyani geologists examine samples at Otse core shed
The environmental focus of the enterprise is another advantage. The whole project is based on supporting the renewables industry. Moreover, Giyani Metals’ strategy is to become a low-carbon footprint producer and the Company aims to do so in a manner that has minimal impact on the environment. “This is a relatively new market and quite concentrated. There are only some 35 consumers of battery metals. We have to qualify the product with the large automobile manufacturers in order to be able to sell it to the supply chain. We need to meet the standards the car makers set, and a big part of that is the carbon footprint, which will be a factor mon-
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Resources Feature
Giyani Metals
Strong position
“While our flagship project is being de-risked, initial results from Otse appear to confirm our expectations for significant further resource expansion, with some of the intersections offering truly spectacular grades. Otse is a different form of mineralization to the K.Hill Project and will not have the same uniformity, but such high MnO content will provide options to high-grade plant feed and blend lower quality material to increase average run-ofmine grade.” Giyani Metals’ aim as a responsible corporation is to create sustainable and shared value for the communities residing in the vicinities of the Company’s projects, adopting a local procurement policy that prioritises the purchase of goods and services from local suppliers wherever possible. Planning to enter the construction phase next year, the Company has a busy time ahead.
“ The demonstration plant
will produce around 250 kilograms per day of final HPMSM product to share with potential customers... we are already assembling interested parties.
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Robin Birchall says: “As we increase the size and quality of our resource, the metallurgical test work is nearing completion, paving the way for the finalisation of the process flowsheet and the start of construction of the demonstration plant. The demonstration plant will produce around 250 kilograms per day of final HPMSM product to share with potential customers for preliminary product testing and we are already assembling interested parties.”
Robin Birchall continues: “The fact that major OEMs and cathode manufacturers are engaging with us now to share data speaks to their recognition of the quality of our projects and the critical nature of sustainable HPMSM supply. Currently, only a very small number of companies outside of China produces HPMSM directly from ore and so Giyani will be a valuable and important source of responsible, transparent and low-carbon HPMSM. We look forward to playing an active part in the European critical supply chain.” www.giyanimetals.com
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Giyani Metals info@giyanimetals.com www.giyanimetals.com
info@busenq.com www.busenq.com