Alphamin’s Mpama North mine is the world’s highest-grade tin mine, currently producing mined material (run of mine) at an average grade of around 4% tin. At a tin grade of 2%, Mpama South is the world’s second highest-grade tin mine.
Mpama North was the beachhead to provide Alphamin with a base and cashflow from which to grow and develop additional mines. Mpama South is approximately 1,000 meters centre to centre from Mpama North.
The additional economies of scale from the recently completed Mpama South mine have resulted in reducing the overall fixed cost structure of Bisie, which enables the combined operation to attain a competitive AISC per tonne, making Bisie a lowest quartile cost producer.
The immediate goal is to embed and improve efficiencies of Mpama South, which has increased Bisie’s annual production capacity by approximately 60%. The two producing mines have a blended feed grade of circa 3% with a combined output of approximately 20,000 tonnes of contained tin per annum. With underground grades expected to increase at depth, the combined plants have the capacity of producing as much as 25,000 tonnes of contained tin per annum in future subject to an increase in mined tin.
High Grade Deposits
Supporting Efficient
Low-cost Production
Alphamin’s Mpama North processing plant was completed in the second quarter of 2019. The Mpama South processing plant was completed in the second quarter of 2024.
Both processing plants were designed to be as simple as possible. This was achieved using primarily gravity separation, with a small float at the end to eliminate impurities in the final concentrate. This simplicity allows us to keep our costs and power consumption modest, while obtaining excellent recoveries of around 73%.
100%
Off-Take
Agreement
Alphamin has an off-take agreement with US-based Gerald Metals for the next four years of production.