Andrew Bamber

   

Managing Director
Bara Consulting

BIO

Andrew is a Professional Engineer with over 25 years’ experience in mining and minerals processing in Southern Africa, the Americas, Europe and Australasia. His involvement has ranged as an engineer at operations through to the design of process solutions in a range of commodities including nickel, copper, chrome, gold and platinum. He has extensive experience in process and process equipment design, plant design, cost estimation and project economics as well as project construction and operations management. Andrew has had extensive involvement in mining both at the consulting and R&D level, with specializations in the development and commercialization of innovative mining and process technologies. He has worked as a Consulting Engineer on prefeasibility and feasibility studies across several commodities and has contributed as lead engineer or project manager in the completion of major capital projects in chrome, nickel, lead-zinc, copper, gold and platinum on time and under budget. In 2009 he founded MineSense Technologies, a Vancouver-based mining technology company focused on the delivery of sensor-based grade control and bulk sorting solutions to the industry. Andrew joined Bara Consulting as Principal, Americas in 2017, and the UK office as MD in 2018, where he focuses on project acquisition and service delivery in Due Diligence, Feasibility Studies and detailed design.

Session 6.
22 October 2025 / 11:00 - 13:00 | Lagoas hall

Geology, Geometallurgy and Metallurgy of the Arthrath Ni-Cu-Co Deposit, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

The Arthrath polymetallic sulphide deposit is syn-orogenic comprising a complex interleaved sequence of orthopyroxene-rich xenolithic gabbronorites and mafic-ultramafic cumulates within an igneous intrusive host, and with associated nickel-copper-cobalt mineralization. Originally explored in the 1960 & 70s by Rio Tinto Exploration, the project is now being advanced by Aberdeen Minerals. Forming part of the Caledonian Orogenic Belt, and with analogous features to classic nickel sulphide deposits such as Voisey's Bay, Eagle and Nova-Bollinger, the intrusion hosts a range of mineralisation styles and classic magmatic sulphide pyrrhotite-pentlandite-chalcopyrite +/- pyrite associations.  Current geological work focuses on improving understanding of the deposit genetics as well as the modelling of potential grades and volumes of Ni-Cu-Co mineralisation. In parallel, a UK government co-funded project has afforded a novel look at mineral processing approaches to be investigated that have potential to directly produce cathode raw materials from the project. This paper presents key aspects of the geology, geo-metallurgy and metallurgy of the Arthrath deposit, concluding with a presentation of novel flowsheet options presently identified and prospects for further flowsheet development.