AMN - BURUNDI: Gakara development on track

Rainbow Rare Earths is making solid progress towards first production of rare earth concentrate within six months from the Gakara Rare Earth Project in Burundi. Gakara is one of the highest grade rare earth element mining projects globally with an estimated in situ grade of 47-67% Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO).

The company says its fast-tracked development schedule is bearing fruit with the mining and plant construction timetable on track to deliver first rare earth concentrate for sale in Q4.

Mining to remove overburden commenced at the Gasagwe initial mine site in April 2017 ahead of stockpiling the high-grade material from the main vein. This will be the company's primary source of ROM ore during 2017/18.

The labour force has concentrated on stripping overburden at the surface of Gasagwe, thereby exposing the targeted 'main vein' to a height of at least 1 metre along its current exposed strike length.  The uncovered vein will be relatively simple to extract and stockpile as required.

There have also been discoveries of several previously unrecorded veins, which will be extracted and added to the ROM stockpile prior to processing plant commissioning. This further supports Rainbow's confidence of significant upside to the known mineralisation.

Work continues on the improvements to the 2.3km Gasagwe access road from the nearest town of Mutambu using local contractors. The road upgrade is required for the haul trucks to transport ROM ore to the processing plant, hence there is no impact on current mining operations during its construction.

Rainbow's ROM ore processing plant will be at Kabezi, 10km due south of Bujumbura and approximately 20km from the mining areas. The site is comprised of relatively flat ground, close to the shore of Lake Tanganyika and is on a main asphalt road. This will provide ease of access for the container trucks collecting rare earth concentrate for export. 

Rainbow has conducted the following recent activities at the plant site:

-        Successful drilling and capping of a borehole to confirm adequate water supply for the site's processing and office/warehouse requirements;

-        Clearance of all vegetation across the entire site;

-        Re-routing of an existing lane from across the site to give local people access to the lake shore and fishing vessels;

-        Substantial completion of all bulk earthworks in preparation for civil works; and

-        Receipt of all necessary environmental and building permits for construction of the processing plant.

Rainbow's EPCM contractor Obsideo Consulting is making good progress with equipment procurement and expected the first shipment of containers to leave South Africa during June.

The company’s planned exploration activities over the coming months will incorporate greenfield and brownfield areas. The focus of greenfield work will be on areas within the existing exploration licence, which have previously not been explored. Rainbow will use techniques that have proven successful during previous work in other areas.

Brownfield work will focus on areas within the mining licence where significant rare earth discoveries have been made, with the purpose of delineating further tonnage for future mining. Tasks include trenching, mapping, gravity surveying and a trenching/terracing prospecting program with a view to uncovering, accurately mapping, and sampling the in-situ sources of large Bastnaesite blocks previously discovered on the surface in the Kiyenzi area.

www.rainbowrareearths.com