The Projects | Battery Minerals
Giyani Metals, the Canadian listed junior explorer, developing the K.Hill battery-grade manganese project in Kanye in early April announced that it has submitted the Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) to the Department of Environmental Affairs for Botswana (“DEA”).
The EIS has been submitted to the DEA for review and comment as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) process.
The EIA process is a key step to the application pathway for a 25-year mining licence (“Mining Licence”) for K.Hill.
The EIS was prepared in compliance with Section 9 of the Botswana Environmental Assessment Act (“Act”) by Loci Environmental (Pty) Ltd (“Loci”), a Botswana-based independent environmental consultancy.
In accordance with the Act, the DEA will now review the EIS against national requirements and respond to Menzi with any clarifications, comments and/or requirements for additional information or studies.
Once the statutory review period, initially of 14 days, and all comments are addressed to the satisfaction of the DEA, the EIS will be made available for public disclosure.
Subject to all concerns being addressed, the EIA process will culminate in the issue of an Environmental Authorisation from the DEA.
Issuance of the Environmental Authorisation will enable the Company to apply for a 25-year Mining Licence for K.Hill from the Botswana Department of Mines (“DoM”).
In addition to compliance with national EIA requirements, Giyani is committed to conforming with the requirements of the international lender communities and Good International Industry Practice (GIIP), including the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”) Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability (IFC 2012) and Equator Principles 4 (EPA 2020).
Jonathan Henry, Executive Chair of the Company, commented:
“The submission of our Environmental Impact Statement marks a major milestone, enabling the K.Hill Project to progress to the next stage of its development. Botswana is a well-established mining jurisdiction and, therefore, we remain confident of a speedy process leading to the issuance of an Environmental Authorisation and then on to the application and granting of the Mining Licence. The timing of this process will depend on several factors, but we remain positive that the Mining Licence may be granted within the next twelve months.”
Giyani’s mission is to become a sustainable, low carbon producer of battery materials for the electric vehicle (“EV”) industry.
The Company has developed a hydrometallurgical process to produce high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate, a lithium-ion battery cathode precursor material critical for EVs, directly from ore from its manganese oxide deposits in Botswana, wholly-owned by its Botswana subsidiary Menzi Battery Metals (Pty) Limited.
The Company’s assets include K.Hill and the Otse and Lobatse manganese prospects, each of which has seen historical mining activities.
