PROJECT DESCRIPTION
This is a joint venture between ZMDC and Lintmar Mining (Pvt) Ltd, whose primary focus is on the extraction of Lithium ore and onsite processing, value addition and beneficiation. Other resources under the same project include Tin and Tantalite.
Project Operational Status
This project is currently at preproduction stage. Feasibilty assessments have been carried out, pilot plant has been established and full operational infrastructure is still being installed. Full operations are expected to commence in the were rescucitated in 2020 following a prolonged period of non-operation on account of the then adverse macro economic environment.
Location
The project is located in the Hwange district in Matabeleland North province. It's located at Kamativi Mine near Kamativi town in western Zimbabwe.
Locality
The property is made up of Shackleton Mine and the Alaska Smelter & Refinery complex. The place is commonly known as Alaska. Alaska is located at 188729mE longitude and 8076742mN latitude. Alaska is located in Mashonaland West province
Physiography
Generally, the area receives high rainfall and is generally warm. Alaska can access water from the Angwa River. The Angwa and its west flowing tributaries, the Ridiwi. Mungamwa and Chimengsa all become a series of pools towards the end of the dry season.
Regional Geology
The country around Dete comprises a central Precamrian inlier of the Zambezi Metamorphic belt, bounded to the north by downfaulted Karoo sediments of Carboniferous to Triassic age and to the south by unconsolidated Kalahari Sands of Tertiary age. Within the Inlier, four NE trending metamorphosed and highly deformed supracrustal units occur, the Malaputese, Inyatue, Tshontanda and Kamativi formations. These are basically metasediments of upper-amphibolite-facies metamorphism. The composition is basically garnetiferous mica schists, with some andalusite, veined with garnet-tourmaline-mica pegmatites. Large, shallow-dipping discordant sheets of lithium- and tin-bearing pegmatites occur and have been mined at 3 centres along the Kamativi belt.
The tin bearing pegmatites of the Kamativi Field occur in a schist belt which strikes E, NE. The pegmatites, which intruded into the country rock, are of two ages groups. The Tourmaline pegmatites, rich in black tourmaline but devoid of tin are the older. They dip steeply at angles of +70 degrees. The tin bearing pegmatites, which are the youngest rock type in the basement series, can be structurally divided into three types. The tin bearing pegmatites are further classified as lithium bearing, none and low bearing lithium. The region remains very prospective and holds promise of yielding fresh resources amenable to opencast or shallow underground mining.
The geology of the area and in the Sections 6, 7 and Chingahari of the Kamativi mine deposit, is well defined, massively mapped and highly worked on since 1920 and was found to be well understood for any future mining and processing operations by investors. Overall Kamativi Tin Deposit geology and mineralogy, pose a distinct business opportunity with its huge tin, tantalite and allied resources at five different geographic locations: Kalinda, Kamativi, Lutope, Kapata, and Elbas coupled with current favourable commodity prices viewed on the markets.