Alphamin Resources is a low-cost tin concentrate producer from its high-grade deposit at its Bisie mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (drc). Their current development project is the Mpama South deposit, which is assisted by their main project, Mpama North, which currently produces roughly 4% of the worlds mined tin. Once Mpama South comes online, production from the Bisie mine will total ~20,000 tonnes of tin.
Alphamin has an additional four exploration licenses covering a total of 1,270km2 in the North Kivu Province of the DRC. Alphamin is headquartered in Mauritius and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSXV: AFM) and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange AltX (JSE AltX: APH).
The Mpama South Mine
Mpama South is found along the Bisie Ridge, just 1km south of Mpama North deposit. It has always been a target for Alphamin, with the company drilling 19 holes in the area in 2012/2013. In late 2020, Alphamin began a drilling program to produce a Mineral Resource Estimate.
The results of the MRE show Mpama South hosts 146,000 tonnes of contained tin within their Indicated and Inferred Resource estimates, at a grade of 2.5%. This makes Mpama South the 10th largest tin project under development in terms of contained tin, with the highest grade between them.
Mpama South is looking to come online late 2023/early 2024. Alphamin are planning to construct a new plant to solely processing Mpama South ore. An internal review concluded that this would be more advantageous as to not affected current mine production. Operationally, the estimated costs for Mpama South are ~$14,300, placing them in the lower half of the global tin cost curve.
The Mpama North Mine
Alphamin have been mining the Mpama North deposit since late 2019, soon after constructing their processing plant in the second quarter of 2019. Fine tin recovery has since been incorporated into the processing flow, which improved total output to ~12,000 tonnes of contained tin per annum, amounting to ~4% of the world's mined tin supply. Alphamin aim to increase annual tin output and Life of Mine through incremental production from Mpama South and by adding more mines in close proximity to the current production and licensed footprint.
Currently, all-in sustaining costs (AISC), including corporate costs is US$ 13,000 per tonne.
Project Information
| Project Name | Mpama South |
| Country | dr congo |
| Mine Type | Underground |
| Product | Concentrates |
| Output (t/y Sn) | 7,200 |
| Mine Life (years) | 12 |
| Start Date | 2024 |
| Capital Cost (US$ M) | 116 |
| Cash Cost (US$/t of tin) | ~14,300 |
CRIRSCO Compliant Mpama South Indicated Resource
| Ore (Mt) | 0.84 | Metal (t) |
| Sn (%) | 2.53 | 21,252 |
CRIRSCO Compliant Mpama South Inferred Resource
| Ore (Mt) | 4.99 | Metal (t) |
| Sn (%) | 2.5 | 124,750 |
CRIRSCO Compliant Mpama South Total Resource
| Ore (Mt) | 5.83 | Metal (t) |
| Sn (%) | 2.5 | 146,002 |