Baobab Resources plc is a Mozambique focused resources company with a robust portfolio green to brown fields projects covering a range of commodities. The Company is rapidly developing its Tete iron/vanadium/titanium asset. Work to date has culminated in the calculation of a 47.7mt maiden Inferred Mineral Resource over a 500m portion of the 8km Massamba Group trend where a 400mt to 700mt Exploration Target has been estimated. Scoping metallurgical studies and financial modelling indicates positive project economics in the production of high quality magnetite (iron and vanadium) and ilmenite (titanium) concentrate commodities. The Tete project has excellent access to critical infrastructure and complementary resources. Baobab has entered into a strategic partnership with IFC at both the corporate and project equity levels.

Tete Pig Iron / Vanadium / Titanium Project

Cutting drill core

The project is located in the richly endowed Tete province of Mozambique. The province hosts some of the largest undeveloped coal reserves remaining on Earth and, with estimates pointing towards the area having the potential to produce up to 20% of the world’s seaborne coking coal within the next decade, is fast-tracking to become a mining and industrial hub of global significance.    

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), hold a 15% participatory interest in the project with Baobab owning the remaining 85%. The Company announced on 6 February that IFC has supported the 2012 pre-feasibility study (PFS) through a pro-rata contribution of approximately US$1.9m.

The Tete Project straddles the central portion of the Tete Mafic Complex and contains two areas of titano-magnetite iron ore mineralisation; the Singore area to the south and the Massamba Group in the north. The Massamba Group is composed of the 3.5km long Tenge / Ruoni prospect to the east and a series of three prospects (Chitongue Grande, Chimbala and South Zone) to the west.

Immediately south of Baobab’s tenure, and sharing the Company’s licence boundaries, are c.15Bt of coking and thermal coal resources being brought into production by two of the world’s largest mining houses, Rio Tinto and Vale, along with tier one steel producers, Tata Steel, Nippon Steel, Jindal Steel and Posco. Other operators in the area include AIM listed companies Beacon Hill Resources plc, Ncondezi Coal Company plc and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation plc (ENRC).

For more information on the Tete project please click here

Muande Magnetite  / Phosphate Joint Venture

Magnetite Ore

The Company announced on 15 November 2010 the signing of a Joint Venture (the ‘Joint Venture’) with North River Resources plc (‘North River’) in relation to North River’s Muande project (the ‘Muande Project’) in the Tete province of Mozambique. The Muande Project comprises two exploration licences covering an area of 338km² located approximately 25km northwest of the provincial capital of Tete and contiguous with Baobab’s Tete project. The Joint Venture is structured such that Baobab may earn an increasing participatory interest in the Project of up to 90% through funding three prescribed stages. Stage 1 is all but complete; earning Baobab a 60% holding in the project and the Company has entered discussions with North River as to their interest in participating pro-rata for Stage 2.

The Monte Muande magnetite/phosphate deposit is located 25km to the northwest of the provincial capital of Tete. The international highway to Zambia passes within 3km of the project. The deposit is hosted in a carbonatite and was explored during the 1980s by the Geological Institute of Belgrade (GIB). GIB completed two phases of vertical diamond drilling between 1983 and 1985 totalling 5,570m, 2,960m of which falls within the Joint Venture area. The Institute also completed more than 10km of trenching and bench-scale metallurgical test work.

Using the GIB data sets in conjunction with more recent soil geochemistry and aeromagnetic surveys completed by Omegacorp, consultants Coffey Mining calculated an Exploration Target of 200Mt to 250Mt to an average depth of c.40m below surface. Coffey also carried out a high level review of the GIB metallurgical data which indicated that a magnetite concentrate containing 67% Fe could be generated via a process of coarse grinding and magnetic separation, followed by regrinding and a flotation circuit to recover a phosphate rock concentrate containing 36% P2O5. Total magnetite and apatite recoveries of 92% and 70% respectively were recorded. Please refer to RNS announcement dated 19 September 2011 for additional details.

During the latter half of 2011, Baobab completed a c.2,000m diamond drilling at Monte Muande (see Figure 2 below). The programme comprised 10 angled drill holes sited along a staggered traverse transecting the central portion of the deposit. Drilling intersected broad zones of shallowly dipping magnetite and apatite (a phosphate mineral) mineralisation.

Due to the disseminated nature of the apatite mineralisation, the entire length of each drill hole was sampled and analysed. The average head grade of all sampled material reported 10% Fe and 3% P2O5. Significant intercepts of the magnetite rich zones were presented in RNS dated 10 April 2012. The average head grade of all Muande significant intercepts is 21% Fe with the Davis Tube Recovery (DTR) magnetic concentrate grades reporting a weighted average of 69% Fe at a mass recovery of 26% (representing a total iron yield of 87%). Deleterious elements are generally very low in the DTR concentrate with the exception of sulphur (S) and titanium (TiO2); additional test work is currently underway to determine the best magnetic strength conditions to optimise the concentrate quality.

The magnetite intercepts generally reported an enrichment of phosphate compared to background values with an average head grade of 4% P2O5. The Phosphate was further upgraded to a calculated weighted average of 5.5% (ranging up to 8.8%) in the non-magnetic reject component of the DTR process. A bench-scale apatite recovery test work programme is being prepared to determine the potential quality and recovery rates of a phosphate rock concentrate.

Fore more information on the Mt Muande Venture please click here

Mundonguara Project Highlights

• A Stage 1 JORC Inferred Mineral Resource on the 1km long Mine portion of the Mundonguara Project of 3.1Mt @ 1.4% copper, 0.11g/t gold and 2.1g/t silver using a 0.3% Cu lower cutoff grade extending to a maximum depth of 200m below existing development.
• Mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike. 
• Significant potential outside resource area along strike in the Seymour 
• Project area where on-going exploration is developing a +3km long corridor of copper/gold mineralisation. 
• Less than US$90 per copper tonne discovery cost. 
• IP survey covering 6km of strike commenced. 
• Aggressive drilling campaigns to prove additional resources at depth and along strike have been designed and tender process commenced. 
• Metallurgical scoping study commissioned.
• Close to critical infrastructure. 

RC Drill Rig

Mundonguara Mine

The Mundonguara mine has been intermittently exploited for copper, gold and silver from the turn of the 20th century until its closure in 1989 due to complications arising from a protracted civil war. In the mine’s final phase, underground development extended to depths of +200m below surface over a strike length of approximately 1km.

The mine is within 2km of the international railway and 5km of the highway, linking the project with the port of Beira. The power lines from the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric power scheme pass within 40km of the mine.

The Company has completed 3596m of underground diamond drilling, 1748m of surface RC drilling and 1838m of underground channel sampling at the Mundonguara Mine. Exploration results culminated in the calculation of a Stage 1 inferred JORC Mineral Resource Estimate as outlined in the table below. For a detailed breakdown of this exploration, please refer to AIM releases of 20 June 2008 and 4 August 2008.

For more information on the Mundonguara Mine please click here

Changara Project Summary

The Changara Project comprises four contiguous exploration licences covering an area of 525km² located approximately 100km southwest of the Provincial capital of Tete and flanking Zimbabwe’s north-eastern border. The national power grid passes within 15km of the project’s eastern boundary.

The licences are underlain by lower Proterozic rocks of the Rushinga Group which flank the north-eastern margin of the Zimbabwe Craton. Although the area has experienced limited historical exploration, it is considered highly prospective for SedEx / Broken Hill Type (BHT) polymetallic base and precious metal and manganese mineralisation and hosts numerous occurrences of zinc, lead, manganese, iron ore, fluorite, copper and silver.

Baobab has completed an extensive soil geochemistry survey covering an area of c.455km² across all four of the Changara exploration licences (representing approximately 87% of the total project area). The samples were analysed using a hand held XRF unit, the results of which identified a series of multi-element targets coincident with prospective geological settings. Follow-up assessment of the highest ranked manganese targets has returned promising rock chip results of up to 36.4% Mn.

For more information on Joint venture with metals of Africa please click here

Mr Jeremy Dowler - Non-executive Chairman

Jeremy's career as a finance director has taken him from the City of London to South Africa and Australia in senior administrative positions in insurance, publishing and resources, including Brockbank Group plc and Thomson Books (London book publishing division of International Thomson Organisation). Jeremy has served on the boards of various resource companies and was a founding shareholder and the former Finance Director of Platmin Limited, a platinum exploration and development company with projects in South Africa. This company is listed on AIM and the Toronto Stock Exchange. He brings significant administrative and financial skills to the Company.

Mr Ben James B.Sc – Managing Director

Ben is a senior geologist with over 10 years experience in the exploration and mining industry. Graduating with a degree in geology from the University of Otago in 1994, he has since held exploration and development roles in a variety of terrains including the Archaean Greenstone belts of Western Australia, Proterozoic gold and base metal systems in Zambia, porphyry gold-copper deposits in the Romanian Carpathians and Ordovician orogenic mesothermal gold mineralisation in New Zealand's South Island. Ben has worked for various companies including Oceana Gold, RSG Global, Katanga Resources, Hill 50 Gold and Herald Resources. As Technical Director of Baobab, Ben’s role is focused on the advancement of the Company’s projects in Mozambique.

Mr Jonathan Beardsworth- Non-executive Director

Jonathan Beardsworth is CEO of Metals Exploration Plc. Previously he was head of the London office of Standard Bank Plc’s Mining and Metals team. In the last 12 years he has participated in and led a variety of M&A and strategic advisory assignments in the mining industry worldwide.

Mr Jon Crowe- Non-executive Director

Alexander Irwin (Jon) Crowe, has been the Company's Marketing Relations Manager since Baobab's admission to AIM in February 2007. Mr Crowe has been involved in the exploration industry for over twenty years, providing contract field services as the principal of Menzies Exploration Company Pty Ltd and he has extensive prospecting experience in Australia and southern Africa. He was a Director of ASX-listed Bamboo Gold Mines Limited and a founding Director of ASX-listed Zambezi Resources Limited.

David Twist, Non-executive Director 

PhD geologist & business man with more than 30 years experience in mineral research & exploration. Has been involved in multi-commodity target generation, implementation & management of exploration programmes, feasibility studies, mining & deal-making. 

Founding a director of  Platmin, Taung Gold, Sephaku Holdings & other companies. Co-founder of African Minerals Exploration & Development SICAR, a private equity fund focused on brownfields exploration in Africa.

Carlo Baravalle, Non-executive Director

Carlo Baravalle holds an MBA from INSEAD. Carlo spent several years in strategic consulting, working on assignments for many large French conglomerates between Paris and the USA, before entering the telecoms industry, firstly  with BT and then as a Director of the Corporate Finance Telecoms team at Warburg, followed by a senior global position at Lucent Technologies.

Carlo first entered the Private Equity sector by taking a senior assignment with a company owned by Apax Partners, and later as Senior Vice-President for LCC, a telecoms engineering company initially invested in by the Carlyle Group. In 2007 Carlo launched a c.$150 million private equity fund of funds aimed mainly at Italian institutional investors that successfully invested in mid-caps, restructuring funds and co-investments globally. In 2012 he co-founded African Minerals Exploration & Development SICAR with Rudolph de Bruin and David Twist. The Fund is currently investing in mineral exploration and development opportunities, predominantly in Africa.  

Management

Mr Graham Anderson (GDA Corporate) - Joint Company Secretary & CFO Services

Graham is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of commercial and corporate experience. He was a Corporate Services Partner with the National Accounting firm Howarth before establishing GDA Corporate in 1999. He has held the offices of Chairman and Non Executive Director of a number of publicly listed companies as well as company secretary for over a dozen ASX listed companies over the past ten years. Graham has strong expertise in accounting standards, corporate governance, the Corporate Act and ASX Listing Rules , as well as AIM client experience.

Christian Kunze - Project Manager: Feasibility Studies

Christian has a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering / Business Administration and 20 years international management experience in iron ore project development, plant engineering and steel manufacture. He has worked for industry specialists including Siemens VAI and ProMet Engineers, and has a well-established network of professional associates in Africa, USA, Europe, Asia and Australia. Christian’s specific strength lies in a combined technical and commercial understanding of projects

Mr Iain Plews - Exploration Manager

Iain is a geologist with over 30 years experience in exploration and mining in Africa and has held senior positions with both major and junior mining companies including Anglo American Corporation, Ashanti Goldfields, ITM Corporation, Reunion Mining and Takoradi Gold NL. He has operated in over a dozen countries in sub-Saharan African and has wide experience in exploration and mining for a variety of commodities including Gold, PGEs, diamonds and base metals. He is presently a partner in Gondwana Limitada, a Mozambiquan consultancy firm, and joined Baobab as Exploration Manager in 2009. Iain resides in Mozambique.

Mr Norman Gwaza - Senior Project Geologist

Norman graduated with a BSC in Geology from the University of Zimbabwe in 1999. He has been working in the mining and exploration industry for over 10 years. Norman has been working for Baobab Resources since 2007. Currently he is Senior Project Geologist based in Tete.

Information taken from Company website 04.03.2013 for more please click here