Burundi has made a tremendous achievement becoming the first African country to export Rare Earths Concentrate (mineral).
Mined by Rainbow Company, the first product has been transported to Mombasa, where it will be shipped out to customers secured under an offtake agreement with ThyssenKrupp, reports in Burundi indicate.
“The first concentrate from the Gakara project in Burundi. A 25 tonne shipment is now on its way by road to Mombasa, as final commissioning of the plant at Gakara completes,” reveal media reports.
Gakara is one of the highest grade rare earth element mining projects globally, with an estimated in situ grade of between 47% and 67% Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO).
The mining company targets production of 5,000 tonnes per year by the end of 2018.
“Rainbow can now rightly claim to being the only producing rare earths mine in Africa, and the highest grade producer
globally,” said chief executive Martin Eales.
“We have successfully delivered on our stated strategy having developed the Gasagwe mine, constructed our processing plant to the point of final commissioning and now exported our first shipment of mineral concentrate all within 11 months of initial public offer.
This is a proud moment for all involved in the company and we now look forward to growing our monthly production levels over the coming months targeting a 5,000tpa run rate by the end of
2018.”
This is significant to President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government as having gradually restored a peaceful environment that facilitates such a multi-billion project.
Background
In July this year guests attended a series of speeches and traditional Burundian cultural celebrations in the town of Mutambu, located close to Rainbow’s first mining area at Gasagwe, where first production and sales of rare earth concentrate is targeted in the December quarter.
Martin Eales, CEO of Rainbow, commented: “The Gakara project is currently the most advanced mining development project in Burundi. We value highly all of the support that we have received from the government of Burundi and the local population.
“Our mining activity at Gasagwe continues to make great progress in readiness for the commissioning of our processing plant and first sales of rare earth concentrate as planned in Q4 this year.
The commencement of production at Gakara is timely as market prices for rare earths have strengthened significantly in the period since Rainbow’s IPO and these increases will directly impact our anticipated sales revenues,” Eales said.
