Essay Hindi Exploration Case Study – History Essay Writing Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

1.  History

Hindi Exploration (HE) is a junior exploration company currently undertaking active diamond exploration programmes in north-eastern & southern India. It has been active for over 20 years but recently rationalised its activities to focus on India following completion of programmes in Brazil, Zimbabwe and Angola. 

Hindi Exploration has a small team of experienced geological, engineering and legal staff who have detailed experience in the diamond exploration business and of operating in India.  HE has recently approached De Beers with a view to De Beers taking an interest in the company and helping progress their exploration activities in Madhya Pradesh. HE has completed its second field season in the area and believes it holds land with high potential for diamonds.  Preliminary discussions have been undertaken and HE have disclosed to De Beers some limited information on their Burhna project.  The initial documents indicate the extent of the company’s property to which they hold the required permits for exploration. The area was selected by Hindi as a suitable target for kimberlite & lamproite primary diamond deposits and there is a history of small scale alluvial mining within the permit area. 

Hindi Exploration has indicated that there is additional information available on request and is seeking a quick response due to an imminent licence renewal deadline. 

2.  India

India is one of the worlds largest and most populous country’s (population 1.2 billion) covering an area of 3.1 million sq km (1.2 million sq miles), excluding Indian-administered Kashmir. It is a country with vast and often untapped mineral wealth including coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone and also hosts the worlds largest thorium deposit.

By 2015 India could become one of the world’s top five suppliers and top five markets for aluminium and steel putting these industries on par with India’s enormous coal industry. It mines around 89 minerals and led the world in diamond production from the time of their discovery in approximately the 9th century BC to the mid-18th century.  It has produced some of the world most renowned diamonds from legendary alluvial deposits such as Golconda. Its diamond mining industry has until recently however dwindled to leave mainly local alluvial production. India has however recently been in the spotlight as a new target country due to the announcement by RioTinto of their plans to develop the new Bunder project within the State. 

3.  The Exploration Area

The geographic location of the Burhna project area is centred on 81º10 E 23º 10 N in hilly terrain rising to an elevation of 1072m asl East of Ramgura. The area is dominated by the Maikala Range of hills and is within the watersheds of the major Johilla, Narmada and Silgi River’s. There are two significant towns at Shahdol and Shahpura. The area also hosts the regionally  important Birsinghpur reservoir. 

Hindi have proposed that the two companies enter into a joint venture (DebIndia) to progress the project based on De Beers funding all future exploration & development cost and in consequence earning a 90% stake in the new joint venture company. The objective of the new company will be to explore for, and evaluate, primary kimberlite & lamproite diamond deposits, and any associated secondary deposits, in the eastern and central part of the country. The exploration licence and associated legal agreements will be transferred into the new company. 

To date the company has undertaken some preliminary studies of the alluvial deposits in the area to help assess commercial potential but also inform the search for primary diamond sources. The desk study and alluvial deposit investigations were followed by a series of heavy mineral sampling programmes with third-party laboratory analysis of recovered heavy mineral concentrates.  An aerial geophysical survey was commissioned and identified some rather broad areas of interest.

Current activity has been to follow-up on the geochemical & geophysical data with a view to target generation.  Hindi Exploration is hoping that the new JV will leverage the expertise within De Beers to best use the existing information and recommend the detailed programme for follow-up exploration and more detailed evaluation of any promising targets. 

The deposit is located near the village of Ramgura and appears to warrant a full pre-feasibility study.  After some initial sampling and drilling DebIndia commissioned a scoping study so that order of magnitude capital and operating cost estimates could be developed, and these were completed by the end of October 2015. De Beers is currently interested in undertaking a detailed evaluation of the deposit with a view to establishing its first mining operation in the country.

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