Alphamin Resources’ (TSXV:AFM) (JSE: APH) Bisie tin mine in the DRC continues growing in stature. Not only does the mine unearth the highest-grade tin in the world, but its spectacular geology lends itself to almost unthinkable upside potential.
When Alphamin Resources’ started the second phase of their diamond drilling programme at the Bisie prospect, North Kivu province, east-central Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2013, everybody knew they were hunting in elephant country. Up until that point, even in the absence of established mining companies operating in the area, the ridge at Bisie continued producing significant amounts of tin, which in some way or the other found its way through and around the Great Lakes region down to the major ports of East Africa.
At that early stage, thousands of artisanal miners dotted the hill and made a meagre living by manually mining the cassiterite deposit of Bisie. Alphamin’s management provided formal employment and today these former artisinals wear gloves, hard hats and overalls while continuing to work one of the world’s richest tin ore bodies for an internationally listed company. Moreover, the tin trade in the region is now well regulated by international agreements and institutions.
Bisie’s spectacular geology
It is a far cry from where they have started, and for the men and women of Walikale, the world has taken a turn for the best. A lot has changed at Bisie since 2013. Eight years later, there are access roads, bridges, houses, schools, a processing plant, and an underground mine. What has not changed though, is the spectacular geology and high-grade tin. At 4% these miners extract the highest-grade tin in the world. This exceptional grade is arguably the main reason why Bisie is regarded as one of the top five tin operations in the world today. Moreover, the grade at Bisie offset other risks, including infrastructure constraints and security concerns. Those challenges have been dealt with efficiently and as demand for Alphamin’s product increased over the years, the company continued delivering the goods and kept up with market requirements. However, until today, all mining on the ridge took place at Mpama North, the deposit that was initially discovered way back in 2012.
Although Alphamin’s geologists ventured off the main vein and drilled a few scattered holes away from where the rigs were initially deployed, their focus, throughout the years, remained exclusively on Mpama North, where the results were, until they were confirmed in the laboratory, almost unbelievable. In fact, at these grades, and at this early stage, it did not make sense to even consider probing other possible ore bodies.
However, in the long term (even though artisanal work and results from several drilling holes elsewhere, indicated the contrary) the one concern has always been that the team will eventually reach the end of the runway. The Life of Mine (LoM) at Mpama North was initially estimated at around 10 years. The concern was not necessarily a dearth of sufficient tin away from Mpama North, but whether the grades would be on par. Anything less than the 3% that Alphamin has become accustomed to, and you would have a proper gamble.
In the first quarter of 2013 Alphamin used only one drill rig to test mineralisation over a very limited area and at a strike length of 275m down to a vertical depth of 200m. A second was deployed during the second quarter. The Gecomines and Golgotha areas of Mpama North were both extensively mined by artisanal miners up to 2010 and this is where Aphamin started systematic exploration of the area in the second half of 2012. At that stage dizzying grades of more than 6% tin were reported. Alphamin could not ask for more, and this is where they started mining. The rest, as they say, is history.
Bisie becomes a giant
Despite initial teething problems, Bisie is now in full tilt, mines 4% of the worlds tin production and is currently knocking the lights out of all competition. Its big secret remains the spectacular average grade of 4% tin. There is also substantial upside potential at another ore body, Mpama South, and in its other scattered deposits on the ridge away from Mpama North. The mine took a while to bring its balance sheet under control, but when that happened last year, the company could at last invest in exploration projects at Mpama South, underground extensional drilling at Mpama North, and some 10km further south on its license area, and that is exciting.
“Alphamin has the potential to extend its operational lifespan well beyond the current 12.5-year plan – in addition to Mpama South, an off-shoot from Mpama North, it has numerous exploration licenses in the region, including an area further to the south known as Marouge where Alphamin has already picked up tin anomalies,” Boris Kamstra, then CEO of Alphamin said in 2013. Today Kamstra is the executive director of Alphamin when Maritz Smith took over as CEO in August 2019.
“We are starting with a portion of the ore-body that we know. We believe that the entire area is going to be a tin province and we believe that in the very near future North Kivu, the Walikale area in particular, will be one of the premier tin producing areas in the world,” Kamstra said.
Drilling underway at Mpama South
Alphamin commenced its Mpama South exploration program with a 5,800 metre (25 drillholes) drilling campaign in December 2020 and a few weeks ago reported that the main zone mineralisation intercepted at Mpama South, based on visual inspection and interpretation, is comparable to the resource mined at the high grade Mpama North. This is exciting news and comes on the back of Alphamin reporting a Q1 EBITDA guidance of USD36.5-million, a new quarterly record, at a tin price of USD23,083/t (Current: ~$25,000/t); and an increase in tin sales to 3,351 tons, up 45% from the previous quarter.
Drilling at the Mpama South deposit of 6,645 metres has already been completed with an additional 8,000 metres planned to be drilled between April and August 2021 with the goal of declaring an initial maiden resource towards the end of 2021. All samples from drilling will be exported for assay by accredited 3rd party off-site laboratories. Assay results from the first three batches of export samples, related to 21 of the 25 holes drilled in phase 1, are expected during May and early June 2021. All holes completed have shown visual mineralisation, supporting continuity of the Main Zone system, while several exceptional intercepts comparable to the thick veins and brecciated zones of cassiterite existing at Mpama North were also observed. In addition, a new zone of mineralisation was discovered in the footwall which appears continuous and highly mineralised.
According to Smith its exploration programme aims to extend the life-of-mine at Mpama North and to declare a Maiden Mineral Resource for Mpama South (located 750 metres south of Mpama North), and to discover at least one additional orebody on the highly prospective Bisie Ridge (13km strike length). In that regard, Alphamin plans to allocate significant drilling metres to each of these three objectives during 2021 as follows:
- Mpama South – between 8,000 and 14,000 metres drilling which, if successful, would allow Alphamin to declare a Maiden Mineral Resource towards the end of 2021 to be followed by a conceptual mining study, infill drilling and further step-out drilling to determine the extent of mineralisation.
- Mpama North – an initial 7,500 metre drilling campaign is planned to test the strike and dip extension of the current producing orebody, below 400m in depth from the mine portal. Commencement of drilling is now targeted for May 2021 (previously August 2021)
- Two drill targets 6-8km south of Mpama North have been identified along the Bisie Ridge. A high-density geochemical soil sampling program is underway and more accurate drilling targets will be identified by the outcomes of this program in Q3 2021.
The first seven drillholes from the current drilling campaign were sampled and assayed by the company’s on-site laboratory. Results confirmed the visual interpretation of high-grade tin intercepts over wide zones. The onsite laboratory has insufficient capacity to cope with the quantity of high-grade samples being generated by the drilling whilst also having to ensure full QA/QC success.
Consequently, a decision was made that all Mpama South samples will be analysed by an accredited 3rd party off-site laboratory before results will be released to the market. There will thus be a delay in the reporting of the official tin assays at Mpama South while the export process is carried out. The first batch of export samples is in the export pipeline.
“These drill intercepts are very encouraging for the Mpama South Prospect. Mineralisation within the Main and Footwall Zones point to a possible Mpama North lookalike and we are encouraged by the resource expansion potential within the existing mining permit. Our view that the 13km long Bisie Ridge hosts multiple high-grade mineralised systems continues to be reinforced, which brings us closer to realising our vision of becoming one of the world’s largest long-life tin producers,” says Smith, CEO of Alphamin.
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