By the middle of next year, Bosai Minerals Group (Guyana) Inc expects to hire between 150 and 200 new employees as the company prepares to invest more than US$23 million ($4.6 billion) on new equipment and auxiliary facilities at its Linden operations, General Manager Eric Yu says.
This announcement was made to a team from the Ministry of Natural Resources, including Minister Raphael Trotman, and a delegation from South Africa which included the Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources Godfrey Oliphant.
The visiting South African team has been hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources over the past week and has been visiting mine operations around the country.
At the Bosai facilities in Linden yesterday morning, Yu gave a presentation during which he announced that the company has started preparations to procure a new #15 Rotary Kiln for calcined bauxite production and a new #16 Rotary Drier for chemical bauxite production.
The #15 Kiln and its auxiliary facilities are expected to cost approximately US$20 million and will produce 170,000 metric tonnes (mts) of Refractory ‘A’ Grade Super Calcined (RASC) bauxite per year, while the new #16 Drier and its auxiliary facilities is expected to cost US$3 million and will produce 150,000 mts of Sized Chemical Grade Bauxite (SCGB) per year.
With these expansions, Yu said, there would be new long-term employment for approximately 150 to 200 persons, which would bring their current work force to between 750 and 800 persons.
The construction of the new equipment is expected to start in May this year, with a completion date of mid-2020.
Yu also explained that for last year, the company was able to produce 180,000 tonnes of RASC, 170,000 tonnes of SCGB and 100,000 tonnes of cement grade bauxite (CBG). In terms of shipment, 200,000 tonnes of RASC, 170,000 tonnes of SCGB and 100,000 tonnes of CBG were exported out of the country. At the end of 2018, the company recorded an annual sales total of approximately US$3 billion.
When questioned about the reason for the expansion, Yu explained that the current #13 Kiln is very old and has been in service for approximately 17 years. In order to shut down the old kiln, they would need to construct and install the new one since there is a requirement of a year’s downtime for the kiln to be properly decommissioned.
“We have to build one more new kiln so after we start the operation, it can give us the space and time to shut down the #13 Kiln. We cannot use #14 alone to satisfy the market and that’s the most important reason,” he explained.
Yu also noted that they have noticed a small increase in the market and they are hoping that they will be able to persuade their customers to buy more of Guyana’s bauxite, which he said, is the highest grade in the world.
The #15 Kiln will be equipped with a dust collector, a move Yu said, the company has taken since 2011, and which has seen a drastic reduction in the dust pollution of the mining town.
After the presentation, the visiting team was given a tour of Bosai’s operations, which Oliphant said is still at the starting point of getting into the “massive mining” that is ongoing in South Africa.
“Having looked at this tour, we know that you can go a very long way. Obviously our engagement with the government here is to see what we can learn from you, what we can share with you and [in] many other respects that we will talk to the Minister about what our observations are,” he said.
Oliphant also explained that there are still a lot of things that can be done for the industry since South Africa’s sector is stricter as it relates to the environment, safety and general methods of mining.
