Consolidated Nickel Mines wins top honours in Investment Battlefield competition

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Zambia-focused Consolidated Nickel Mines (CNM) won the first Investment Battlefield Competition for junior miners at this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba, with Sula Iron & Gold in second place.

CNM, a subsidiary of Consolidated Mining and Investments, is planning to restart the 4 500 t/y brownfield Munali nickel mine, 70 km south of Lusaka, where operations were stopped in November 2011, owing to low nickel prices and poor operational performance by its previous owners.

CNM CEO Simon Purkiss said that while the decision to compete in the Investment Battlefield was rather last minute, the results have been “fantastic”.

“Presenting, and then winning, has meant that there was a lot of discussion about the company and the project following the results, which has continued since the Mining Indaba.

“The message we were presenting was that we were raising the funds to restart the mine and so the exposure came at just the right time. The feedback from the judges, not only to us but to the audience on the merits of the project, was very well received."

Sula Iron & Gold, meanwhile, is an Aim-listed company focused on the exploration for gold, iron-ore and coltan in Sierra Leone.

The Mining Indaba introduced the Investment Battlefield platform to support Africa’s new generation of emerging miners, giving 16 junior mining companies the opportunity to pitch their projects to a panel of expert investors, competing for prizes that will support the development of new projects.

“Identifying the best junior mining companies for investors and supporting the development of new projects is at the core of Mining Indaba, and will be a growing part of the Mining Indaba in the future,” said Mining Indaba MD Alex Grose.

Total prizes, valued at more than £15 000 include free attendance passes, an exhibition stand and hotel accommodation for the 2018 Investing in African Mining Indaba.