BNC bullish over Kingstone Hill venture

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BINDURA Nickel Corporation (BNC) says it expects the Kingstone Hill project — a new mining venture — to contribute significant ore feed to its smelter, which is undergoing upgrades to increase capacity to 160 000 tonnes of nickel concentrate.
The refurbishments of the smelter, which was mothballed following the closure of the firm’s Shangani and Epoch mines between 1999 and 2000, are at 83 percent completion.
During a tour of the Trojan Nickel Mine last week, BNC managing director Thomas Lusiyano said there is a huge resource estimated to be around 120 million tonnes of ore at Kingstone.

“Despite the existence of that huge resource, it has remained untapped because it was waiting for investment first to quantify the extent of the resource itself before exploitation could begin.
“With the coming in of Kuvimba Mining House (Kuvimba), we have been able to advance that project. So firstly, it was trenching, exploratory trenching on the surface to confirm the resource.”
Lusiyano said Kingstone Hill sits on a straight length of the hill of around 1,8 kilometres and it was confirmed that 1,6 kilometres of that were mineralised with nickel.
“To ascertain the nickel resource, we are doing exploratory drilling. We have three rigs that are drilling. The initial cost of that first phase of exploration drilling is US$1 million. Obviously, with other expenses associated with fuel and other related costs, we expect the initial first phase cost to be around US$1,5 million.
“Then we also expect to undertake the second phase of exploration that will cost us around US$1,5 million, then to close the gaps in terms of information thereafter we go through feasibility studies for us to be able to say we have an economically viable project or not,” he added.
Though the exploration expedition hasn’t been concluded, a bullish Lusiyano said indications were that Kingstone Hill would be an economically viable operation.
“Kingstone Hill is probably 10 times more than Trojan Nickel Mine in terms of resources.
“So, when you look at capital investment in terms of a plant for processing, Kingstone Hill will require a plant that will be a minimum of five times the concentrator that we have at Trojan Nickel Mine.
“We will be able to quantify the requirements in terms of capital requirements when we have done the feasibility studies,” he said.
For this year, Lusiyano said BNC was targeting the operationalisation of either Hunters Road or Kingstone Hill ventures.
“Each one of those will require approximately US$250 million, so it’s that kind of money that will necessitate that we go the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange route and seek to raise funding from there,” he further added.
BNC had diminished to a fraction of its former self over the last decade before being taken over by Kuvimba a few years ago.
Since 2020, Kuvimba has been resuscitating most of the mines it took over through capital outlays and the acquisition of new, modern equipment.
Kuvimba is 65 percent owned by the government, while a consortium of private investors holds the remaining 35 percent equity.
It operates BNC, Freda Rebecca Gold Mine, Shamva Gold Mine, ZimAlloys, Great Dyke Investments, Elvington Mine, Jena Mine, and Sandawana Mine in the Midlands.
Kuvimba owns a majority stake in the nickel miner.
BNC is Zimbabwe’s biggest nickel mining company, with a track record that spans more than a half-century.
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