JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Rare earth elements mining company Rainbow Rare Earths has started work on the now fully permitted Gakara rare earths project, in Burundi, ahead of trial mining.
Following its $8-million fundraising and successful initial public offering (IPO) on the LSE in January, preparation for mining at Gakara progressed at the first production site Gasagwe, with haulage and access road construction a primary focus, in addition to the establishment of the basic infrastructure for the mine site.
Rainbow is targeting first production and sales of rare earths concentrate by the end of 2017, with a full local labour force now recruited.
“It has been a very busy period since completion of the $8-million fundraise and IPO and, as a result, Rainbow has made great progress in delivering on the strategy we presented to investors, namely bringing our Gakara project to production and sales within nine months,” said Rainbow CEO Martin Eales.
Rainbow signed a full engineering, procurement and construction management contract with South Africa’s Obsideo Consulting for the completion of the design, supply and construction, as well as commissioning and handover, of its ore processing plant by the fourth quarter of this year.
In addition, the initial extraction of run-of-mine ore from the high-grade veins will start in due course, increasing in quantity once the company has taken delivery of its first fleet of mining machinery around the end of April.
Meanwhile, Rainbow has elected to repay Pala Investments $1.7-million in full and final settlement of the outstanding loan facility and the company is now debt free.
Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter
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