Mali now has a second lithium mine up and running, after the Bougouni project of Kodal Minerals and its joint venture partner, Hainan Mining, produced its first spodumene concentrate in February this year. The country’s first lithium mine, Goulamina, owned by China’s Ganfeng, was inaugurated in December 2024. Report compiled by ARTHUR TASSELL.

The initial spodumene concentrate production at Bougouni was achieved during the commissioning phase of the full Stage 1 DMS plant with the introduction of pegmatite ore into the processing circuit. The DMS plant achieved its target on this initial run, producing a concentrate grade of 5.53% Li2 O, and the focus is now on ramping up to a production capacity of 10 kt per month of concentrate.

Commenting on the first production, Bernard Aylward, Kodal’s CEO, described it as a major milestone for Kodal. “The operational focus over the coming weeks will be the finalisation of commissioning and stress testing of the DMS processing plant as we ramp up to achieve nameplate capacity and steady state production,” he said.

Kodal, whose shares are quoted on London’s AIM, acquired the Bougouni property nearly a decade ago from Malian owners. At that stage it was unexplored although its potential to host lithium had been identified by a World Bank-sponsored study around 2006. The company put in its first drill hole at the project – located in southern Mali approximately 170 km south of Bamako, the country’s capital – in 2016 and by 2018 was able to produce a maiden resource.

ALSO READ: Kodal Minerals: Bougouni now in the home straight

A Feasibility Study (FS) was completed in 2020 and updated in 2022. It detailed a 2 Mtpa plant using conventional flotation technology requiring a capex of US$154 million. Soon after completion of the updated DFS, Kodal identified an opportunity to fast-track Bougouni into production at a much-reduced capital expenditure by phasing its development with Stage 1 consisting of a 1 Mtpa DMS operation. The project subsequently proceeded on this basis. Stage 1 has been completed on time and within its capital budget of approximately US$65 million. It has an IRR of 274% and an NPV7 of US$420 million (after a four-year life of mine).

Kodal’s joint venture partner on the project the project, China’s Hainan Mining, is’ a subsidiary of Fosun International, a US$5 billion Hong Konglisted conglomerate with US$112 billion in assets. Hainan has invested US$100 million for a 51% stake in the Bougouni asset and has also invested US$17.5 million into Kodal Minerals plc for a 14.7% interest in the company. Hainan will be taking 100% of the spodumene product from Stage 1 to supply feedstock to its new lithium hydroxide plant in China, which was commissioned in mid-2024. Hainan’s Yushen Cai (whose experience includes managing the giant Husab uranium mine in Namibia) is GM of the JV entity implementing the project. He is backed up by Kodal’s Steve Zaninovich (who has 30 years’ experience of project development and production in West Africa) as Deputy GM and Kodal’s Operations Director.

The current JORC mineral resource estimate (MRE) for Bougouni is 31.9 Mt at 1.06% Li2 O (representing 337 kt of contained Li2 O), with 10.6 Mt having been added in 2024 versus the 2019 MRE. Kodal believes there is significant potential to increase this substantially and is targeting 50 Mt Li2 O by the end of 2025. Current resources are all contained in the Ngoualana, Sogola-Baoulé and Boumou pegmatite deposits but there are two further deposits – Kola and Bougouni South – which are largely unexplored but offer further upside potential.

The Stage 1 project is based on conventional open-pit mining of the Ngoualana deposit. The ore from Ngoualana has coarse grain properties, which facilitate high DMS recoveries. The strip ratio is 7.5 to 1 and approximately 2.9 million bank cubic metres (BCM) will be moved per annum. The LOM of Stage 1 could be extended by mining some of the Boumou ore and processing it through the DMS plant. Both coarse and fine-grained spodumene has been observed in diamond core from Boumou with the coarse-grained samples appearing similar to the DMS ore from Ngoualana.

The mining contractor for Stage 1 is a consortium of Auxin Mining Services SARL and EGTF. Auxin is a subsidiary of Beijing Auxin Chemical Technology Ltd, which is, in turn, controlled by China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO). Auxin has existing contract mining operations at projects in Namibia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. For its part, EGTF is a fully owned Malian company, which has worked with numerous mining companies in West Africa.

The mining contractor mobilised to site in April 2024 and by February of this year had built up a stockpile of ore of 335 kt grading on average 1.17% Li2 O on the ROM pad. The supplier of the dual crushing circuit modules and ancillary equipment for the Stage 1 plant was Beijing HighDynamic Technology Co (BHD), while the DMS equipment was manufactured by Haiwang Technology Group.

Following a tender process to four companies with local regional experience and based on the designs from Haiwang, the civil construction/ concrete contract was awarded to a Malian company, Bambara Resources SARL. Bambara is a locally owned Malian company established in 2017 to provide services to the mining industry in Mali. It executed its contract in conjunction with an established and experienced Malian-based company, GZB Mali (GZB), part of the China-based Gezhouba Group.

Bougouni’s product will be transported to international markets via the ports of San Pedro or Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, a distance of roughly 900 km. Alternate product export routes to Dakar and Conakry are also being investigated by Bougouni’s logistics consultant. As this article was being written, the first shipment of product to China was imminent.

Stage 2 of the Bougouni project, which will see construction of the flotation plant and have a capacity of approximately 230 ktpa, will be funded with cash flow from Stage 1 and will involve a capex of between of between US$175 million and US$200 million. The plant will be located close to the Boumou and Sogola-Baoulé deposits. It is expected to commission in 2027 and have an initial 10-year mine life.