The tendering process took place last month, with six companies invited to submit proposals. The request for proposal (RFP) included two work packages, WP1 and WP2, which will be performed in parallel by the group of companies.

WP1 involves all technical mining disciplines but will exclude processing, infrastructure and environmental/social elements of the project, and WP2 will mostly include the processing, infrastructure and project execution disciplines.

SRK, which completed Giyani's preliminary environmental assessment (PEA) earlier this year, was selected for WP1. WP2 was awarded to the joint Coffey and Royal IHC bid.

"The joint bid provides Giyani with specialised experience from Tetra Tech in the process of making electrolytic manganese metal (EMM) in a solvent extraction/electrowinning (SX/EW) plant and mining engineering and construction experience from Royal IHC," the junior mining operator said.

Bids are still being evaluated for the project's environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA). For now, Giyani is moving into the contracting phase, which will begin with SRK, Coffey and Royal IHC vising the site this week.

"Commencing the FS for K.Hill, along with the ESIA, which we will kick off shortly thereafter, is a very important step forward, one that will prepare the company for the next and most important phase of its development, becoming one of the leading independent producers of high-purity manganese for the battery-electric vehicle market," Giyani CEO Robin Birchall said.