On June 16, Australia-listed Myanmar Metals Limited announced that it had received a non-binding conditional offer of A $66.5 million (324 million yuan) from China's Yintai Gold Corporation for all of its shares at A $0.035 per share in cash. At present, due to the travel restrictions imposed by Myanmar due to the epidemic and political environment, Yintai has not yet completed the due diligence before the formal offer. Myanmar Metals said that it will cooperate with Yintai and assist the latter to carry out the due diligence.
Myra Metals is an Australian-listed junior exploration company with a 51 per cent stake in the Bawdwin silver-lead-zinc project, the largest lead and zinc deposit in Myanmar.
The Bawdwin silver-lead-zinc mine, located in northern Shan State, Myanmar, just 60 miles from the Chinese border, is a multi-metal mine of gold, silver, red copper, lead, zinc and antimony. Before World War II, nearly 3,000 underground workers were employed in the mine. Mines were damaged during the war, and in recent years MMEC has begun reexploring the Bawdwin mine.
According to the latest pre-feasibility study (PFS), the first stage of the Bawdwin mine will be open pit mining with an estimated 13 years of production and 24.7 million tonnes of ore with a grade of 6.4% lead, 3.2% zinc and 168g silver per tonne. The ore has a rough reserve of 18.4 million tons with a grade of 6.4% lead, 3.4% zinc and 169 g silver per ton. The first phase of the mine will be operational by the end of 2021 and is expected to produce 2 million tons of ore per year, 118,000 tons of concentrate lead, 10 million ounces of silver and 49,000 tons of zinc. In order of output, it is the world's third largest lead ore, the tenth largest silver ore, and will become an important zinc ore. Construction of the underground mine for the Bawdwin silver-lead-zinc project is scheduled to begin approximately six years after the first phase of production.
At present, the resources of Bawdwin silver, lead and zinc mine are mostly limited to the old mining area, only a few subsequent drilling results have been considered, and the bottom of the old mining area has not been drilled. In the future, the Yegonridge, Ervalley, Shannorth, Chinlode, The Bawdwin Ag-Pb-Zn deposit is expected to increase significantly as drilling progresses in the Yegondeeps, Yegon Ridge, and other preferred target areas.
Myanmar is rich in mineral resources. At present, the main proven mineral deposits include copper, lead, zinc, silver, gold, iron, nickel, ruby, sapphire and jade. Due to the lack of the ability of overall geological exploration, the reserves and distribution of mineral resources in Myanmar are not completely clear.
The best-known Chinese mining project in Myanmar is the Letpadang copper mine, but it is also one of China's most troubled overseas projects. The total investment of Letpadaung Copper Mine in Myanmar is USD 1.065 billion. On June 3, 2010, witnessed by the prime ministers of China and Myanmar, the product sharing contract of Letpadaung Copper Mine project was officially signed, with a total investment of USD 1.065 billion. The designed mining production scale is 30,350kt /a(about 92kt/d), crushing and heap leaching daily ore volume is 92kt/d, and the hydrometallurgical copper production capacity is 100kt/a cathode copper (100,000 tons of cathode copper/year), which is the largest hydrometallurgical copper project under construction in Asia at that time. The Chinese owner is Wanbao Mining Co., Ltd., while the Myanmar partner is the Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Company.
Myanmar is a relatively closed agricultural society. The construction of such a large scale mining project has caused conflicts of interests with local residents, such as demolition, resettlement and environmental governance, etc., which has caused panic and resistance among local residents, and even broke out conflicts, resulting in casualties. Since the first shutdown in 2012, it experienced the embarrassing situation of resuming work and stopping work again, and the production went into operation smoothly in March 2016.
This time, Yintai gold plans to enter Burma's first silver - lead - zinc mine, which is both an opportunity and a challenge.
China's lead and zinc resources reserve ranks second in the world, but it has the characteristics of large and small mines, rich and poor mines, easy mining and difficult mining. At the same time, China's lead and zinc mining enterprises are mainly small enterprises, the utilization rate of resources is generally insufficient, and the environmental harm is great.
Under the conditions of green development of China's mining industry and stricter environmental protection, Myanmar lead-zinc ore may become an important supply to China's lead-zinc market.
