The image shows what the company believes is high grade of manganese ore at the Vorovorobitu deposit on Nasaucoko. Photo: VITI MINING LIMITED
By RANOBA BAOA
Viti Mining Limited has been granted the mining licence to precede mining on its Special Prospecting Licenses (SPL) for manganese ore in Nasaucoko on its Vorovorobitu deposit site.
Vorovorobitu, located in Navosa, covers approximately 120 acres.
Company chief financial officer, Michael Wilson said this is a new development for the company.
“We’re going to prepare the civil works to commence by putting in the road infrastructure, the water supply system,” Mr Michael said.
“We’re a bit flexible with time because it’s our first attempt at mining. So there’s quite a few things that we’ve got to get organised.
“We’re looking at October to commence production to mine one site.”
The company is in the process of finalising equipment purchases, manganese processing lines, the processing line is used to crush manganese ore to the right particle sizes, he continued.
Trial shipment
In doing so, the company is preparing the first trial shipment of 500 tonnes of manganese to Australian-based BHP Tasmanian Electro Metallurgic Company (TEMCO) manganese smelter.
This is a vendor approval process and a positive outcome will be determined by the trial shipment, Mr Michael said.
“At the end of this month or perhaps next month, we will have 500 tonnes ready for the trial shipment. Our initial production is 1000 tonnes a month,” Mr Michael said.
“If all goes well, we will have a supply contract within two months and that’s the reason why we’re preparing a trial shipment of 500 tonnes. We’ve started with that approval process.”
The company aims to have consistent supply of manganese to the smelter following the success of this shipment.
Other mining prospects
The rest of Nasaucoko is under exploration but area of latest potential is Boro, Mr Michael said.
“Boro is another potential mine site. The mine operations are Vorovorobitu and our focus is with exploration and in future is to further mine Nasaucoko and then move on to our next tenement site which is, Vunamoli.”
The company is in talks with consultants, Australian-based Salva Resources to draw up an exploration programme.
“Vunamoli is very promising. There’s a lot more work to do. What we want to do is achieve a level of confidence in manganese mining because the industry has always been viable.”
The company believes it has established investor interest’s in Fiji’s Manganese and is aiming for a possible world class manganese industry in the Fiji Islands.
About Viti Mining
Viti Mining has been in the business of the exploration and mining of manganese in Fiji since 2006.
The company holds six Special Prospeting Licenses for Manganese Ore exploration: Nasaucoko (just approved for mining), Vunamoli, Votualevu, Namedre, Korovou, and Tabuquto.
The areas are all located in South West of Viti Levu.