The Mauritanian mining sector is increasingly attracting European, Arab and Asian investors. Despite the security context that predominates in the Sahel-Saharian region, Mauritania benefits from a climate marked by the stability of its institutions and security. The mining sector in Mauritania has benefited greatly from the diversification of the Mining production. As it has been a producer of iron ore for almost half a century, Mauritania has seen in recent years, development of new resources through the exploration, exploitation and extraction of other mining substances like: gold, copper, rare soil, phosphate, salt, gypsum, zinc, uranium and ores industrial. SMB MINING, makes every effort to become an attractive destiny for the mining investors. Achieving this objective is within our reach as we have the licenses of exploitation in areas of high potential geological and mining importance. And our teams are in strict compliance with the manufacturing orders. Meticulous management for the orders with a double check to guarantee the quality of our products and services.
1)Hasi Abyad’s kaolin deposit:
SMB MINING has a 10-year license to exploit Hassi Abyad kaolin within an area of 24 km² .
Hassi Abyad kaolin has a very fine particle size. More than 70% of the grains are located in the particle size fraction of less than 2 μm. Ceramic tests of selected samples (low iron) have shown that Mauritanian kaolin is suitable for various ceramic products (sanitary ceramic, technical porcelain and tiles). The average kaolinite content is about 85% (mass content). This kaolinite content was confirmed by mineralogical studies using X-ray diffraction on 37 samples. The investigation of the samples revealed an average kaolinite content of 86.5% by weight.
The calculated cubicle, a density of ρ=2.65 t/m³ and the average kaolinite content interpolated, allow the estimation of a tonnage of 80 million tonnes (mt) of kaolin, of which 65 mt from kaolinite in Hassi Abyad.
2)Copper and Gold:
Large copper-ore deposits exist in Mauritania in the area of TIJIRIT, where we have 5 operating licenses, but also several other presences, have been identified as copper-ore oxide deposits. As a result, the TIJIRIT zone is economically significant in respect of ore, and has tremendously been a target of exploration. The Akjoujt region deposit, also designated by Gunn et al. (2004) as the sector of Inchiri, where former copper holdings are reported by the French military in 1931, and samples were taken by the Bureau Minier from 1946 (Blanchot, 1947). Attempts for the mining of the deposit began in the 1950s and continued until the early 1990s when General Gold International succeeded, between 1993 and 1996, in extracting 156 000 ounces of gold from the mine’s sterile (Gunn et al., 2004). First Quantum Minerals Ltd has taken a big deposit in 2004, and began commercial production in 2006 (First Quantum Minerals Ltd, 2012a). The mining production in 2011 was 3,610,000 tonnes of ore, at an average content of 1.4 percent copper, with additional production of 35 281 ounces of gold (First Quantum Minerals Ltd, 2012b). Potential deposits as of 31 December 2011 were 32 060 000 tonnes, at a content of 1.09 % of copper and 0.79 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold. The measured and indicated resources mounted to 30 940 000 tonnessulphide mineralization at a content of 1.18 percent copper, and 0.77 g/t gold, and 120,000 tonnes of mineralization of oxides, at a content of 1.58 percent copper and 1.30 g/t of gold. First Quantum Minerals Ltd., 2012b). Due to this huge potential of copper and gold deposits, SMB MINING company and its wholly owned subsidiaries, MDC company which operates in gold field and SMB MINING LIMITED which operates in copper field, have possessed several copper and gold licenses in the aforementioned geographical zone.