Vanuatu mine

may be back in business

A MANGANESE mine in Vanuatu, closed since 1976, may be brought into production again. The Forari Mine on Efate is believed to still contain two million tonnes of ore, mostly high grade.

Perth-based Portman Mining Ltd will control 95 per cent of the venture and the original owner, Le Manganese de Vate (LMV), will have the rest. If the mine goes ahead, Portman will pay LMV SUS2.S million out of manganese sales to cover mineral leases, port facilities and other infrastructure.

Forari Mine was worked for nearly 30 years by LMV. It was heavily capitalised for the scale of the mining, and became uneconomic in the mid-1970s with a fall in the world price.

Portman’s first task will be to rehab ilitate the mine workings, install equip ment and restore the wharf at Metensa Bay from where the manganese is shipped. Portman sees Vanuatu as a complementary source to its existing manganese mine in Western Australia. It will be cheaper to mine in many respects: the Australian operation entails hauling the manganese 386 km by road to the port, but Metensa Bay is just 20km from the Vanuatu mine site. The deposit is also reasonably accessible the ore body is flat and tabular and not too deep.

The total deposit in Vanuatu is not huge, but manganese is a high value alloy used in steel-making. LMV managed to mine 30,000 tonnes of ore a year, but Portman would propose a production level of about 100,000 tonnes. The manganese will be sold to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China. □