News

October 30, 2008

Kenmare Resources Is Now Dredging For Titanium Minerals In Calmer Waters

By Charles Wyatt

It is the ultimate irony, but a common enough story across the industry nowadays - just when gutsy Irish company Kenmare Resources is bringing the Moma titanium minerals mine into production, its shares hit a low fractionally over 10p. Things did not go exactly smoothly during the commissioning phase as Kenmare was let down by its turnkey contractor when a number of items of equipment were found to be not fit for purpose and had to be replaced. As this meant installing two new dredge pumps and the vibrating screens on the mineral separation plant there was an inevitable delay to the ramp-up programme. With hindsight this might be seen as a blessing in disguise as Kenmare raised US$30 million by a share placing at 32p per share in August and might find it difficult to raise US$3 million under current conditions.

As it is, Michael Carvill, the indomitable managing director, was able to announce earlier this month that dredging of in-situ ore increased by 32 per cent in September when compared with the previous month and by seven per cent when compared with June, the previous best month. A total of 50,000 tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate was produced by the wet concentrator plant in September, up from 33,500 tonnes in August and 43,500 in June, so the pattern becomes clear. The actual production of...