AMN - DRC: Alphamin announces $10 million investment

Alphamin Resources Corp has entered into an agreement with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa which will invest up to US$10 million directly in Alphamin Bisie Mining S.A., the Democratic Republic of Congo operating subsidiary of Alphamin.

The IDC is a major South African financing institution with more than 70 years of experience investing in mining companies.

Alphamin CEO Boris Kamstra says, “The IDC’s investment into Alphamin DRC represents a vote of confidence for Alphamin from a significant experienced long-term investor. We look forward to working with the IDC in developing the Bisie Tin Project.”

The funds from the subscription will be used for the continued funding of a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), further evaluation of the resources and, on the completion of the DFS, preliminary mine construction work on the Bisie Tin Project in east central DRC and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Alphamin is a TSX Venture Exchange listed tin explorer and developer. The company’s strategy is to locate next generation tin assets and leverage its exploration and development expertise to create sustainable tin production.

The company’s primary focus is to realise the potential of the Bisie project, a high-grade tin asset in the DRC.

Rob Still, the mining entrepreneur, and geologist Anton Esterhuizen, have been one of African mining’s best double acts for years. Their latest incarnation is Alphamin Resources headed by colleague, Boris Kamstra.

Alphamin’s purpose in life is the development of a tin resource in the DRC’s North Kivu district, once a haven for warlords, now a relatively peaceable outpost for one of the world’s best undeveloped tin deposits, Bisie.

The $156 million project is due to come on stream in 2018 just as the relatively shallow tin market runs into a supply deficit. The Industrial Development Corporation has pledged $10 million to the project, its first in the DRC for years, but the balance of the funds are yet to be committed.

Boris Kamstra thinks funding will be no problem - roughly 44% of the company is backed by the UK’s Denham Capital Partners through subsidiary Tremont Holdings which recently agreed to support a $8.5 million private placement. Denham had earlier made $200 million available to Still and Esterhuizen for new projects in Africa.

Early project works are under way at Bisie but political risks are an unignorable factor: Joseph Kabila’s reluctance to accede to national elections is one; another was the detainment of the MD of Alphamin’s local subsidiary on suspicion of fraud – a groundless mix up soon resolved, but a reminder the DRC represents frontier mining.

Meanwhile, Boris Kamstra has been knocking about the DRC for 12 years, but began his career as a civil engineer for Grinaker Concrete Construction where he became a director in 1999. He joined Rob Still’s Pangea Group working in its diamond and exploration divisions until taking up an interim role at Alphamin in mid-2015 that became permanent six months later. Boris Kamstra is married with two children. His first job was as game ranger at luxury resort, Mala Mala.

www.alphaminresources.com