Nkamouna

The 1,600 square kilometers project is located in the Haut Nyong district, East Province of Cameroon, Africa. The project's site is 640 kilometers by road from the seaport of Douala, and about 400 kilometers from the capital city of Yaounde. The closest town to the project site is Lomie, at approximately 26 kilometers to the west southwest. The closest railroad transport to the project is at the town of Belabo, at a distance of approximately 250 kilometers.

Geovic will expand and improve the road access to facilitate transport of equipment, supplies and personnel to and from the project on a year-round basis, except during the most severe periods of rain. A small private airstrip will also be constructed near the project to expedite the transport of personnel, small parts and supplies, and for emergencies.

The Nkamouna project, one of seven regional laterite deposits, contains 53 million tonnes of proven and probable mineral reserves at average grades of 0.24 percent cobalt and 0.72 percent nickel. The Mada deposit, another of the seven regional laterite deposits, contains 145 million tonnes of inferred mineral resources at average grades of 0.21 percent cobalt, 0.48 percent nickel, and 1.15 percent manganese.

The Nkamouna project will be mined as an open-pit utilizing 6.5-m3 hydraulic excavators and shovels, 6.9-m3 wheel loaders, 54-tonne haul trucks, and 152-mm diameter truck-mounted auger drills. The Nkamouna PFS considers an average annual mining rate of 6.33 million tonnes over the 21.3-year mine life. This includes 3.86 million tonnes of waste per year and 2.47 million tonnes of ore per year for an average stripping ratio of 1.56 to 1.

Processing would use conventional equipment and proven technology to recover 158 million pounds of cobalt and 129 million pounds of nickel over the project life. This production is equivalent to annual average rates of 3,300 tonnes of cobalt and 2,700 tonnes of nickel.

Processing this unique material starts with crushing, attritioning and particle sizing to produce a highgrade, coarse concentrate. The Physical Upgrading (PUG) plant will be fed from stockpiles using a wheeled loader and direct dumping from ore haulage trucks. The plant basically consists of a receiving hopper and two stages each of crushing, attritioning and particle classifying to produce coarse, high-grade concentrates (-1 inch x +48 mesh), low-grade middlings (-48 mesh x +200 mesh) and fine tailings (-200 mesh). The concentrate will be conveyed to a receiving bin at the process plant.

The PUG plant feed is a nominal 7,000 tpd with 1,500 tpd of product to the MRP, 4,700 tpd of fine tailings, and 800 tpd of middling concentrates. The PUG tailings will be disposed of in the Napene Creek tailings storage facility (TSF). The middling concentrates will be stored in a segregated area of the mine backfill.

The two main waste streams from the MRP are manganese precipitate and CCD leach tails. The manganese precipitate will be stored in a segregated area of the mine (55 tpd) and the CCD leach tails (1,385 tpd) will be co-disposed with the PUG tails in the Napene Creek TSF.

To support the mining and milling operations at Nkamouna, a number of ancillary facilities will be required. These include energy generation, a mobile equipment maintenance shop, warehouse, reagent storage building, laboratory, and administration offices. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units fueled by locally harvested wood will produce total project requirements of 2.5 MW of electrical energy and 11 MW of thermal energy. A temporary 300-man construction camp will be installed and used until permanent housing can be obtained to meet project operating requirements.

The total initial capital is approximately $111 million, with an additional $50 million of sustaining capital required over the 21-year mine life. The 15-month construction period also includes $18 million of costs that are treated as expenses for tax purposes.