Orion Minerals, which is developing copper mining assets in South Africa, yesterday said there was potential to add more high-grade tons from shallow deposits such as at its Flat Mine project in the Northern Cape.
At the beginning of this month, Orion announced that it had completed a R92.3 million capital raise to advance its SA copper and zinc operations.
In May, the Industrial Development Corporation approved a R43.7m financing facility for Orion Minerals’s acquisition of a controlling stake in the Okiep copper project in the Northern Cape.
Now, Orion has received “outstanding assay results for the first diamond drill holes completed at Flat Mine South”, which it described as “a virgin discovery that is blind” to surface.
Flat Mine South will make up “a key part of Orion’s early production plan” for the Okiep copper project.
“We are encouraged by the potential to rapidly add high-grade tonnes from near-surface bodies such as at Flat Mine Nababeep, and also down-dip and along trend of the blocks being included in the current mine plan,” Orion managing director Errol Smart said yesterday.
The latest results had shown that the Flat Mines complex “contains very high-grade copper sulphide mineralisation contained within wider zones” of moderate grade.
The company’s initial bankable feasibility study, which Orion said was nearing completion had however only focused on immediately available mineral resourcing from Flat Mine North, Flat Mine East and Flat Mine South.
The company has been boosted by the potential to expand scale and extend the mine life, saying this lies at the core of its investment decision within the Okiep district.
Orion is now targeting to restore its properties within Okiep to the historic production-levels of 20 000 to 50 000 tons of copper production per year.
Previous owners of the assets had sustained such production-levels over lengthy periods, it said.
“Following our success in confirming the potential for high-grade copper mineralisation at Flat Mine East over the past month, the first assay results from Flat Mine South, located about 3km to the south-west of Flat Mine East have delivered further outstanding copper intercepts,” said the company.
The intersections achieved to date supported geological and grade distribution interpretations that were incorporated in Mineral Resource modelling and estimations for the Okiep copper project.
It added that drilling would continue to test the down-dip extension of high-grade mineralisation in a previously untested area encompassing 300m of strike and 200m down-dip extent.
Moreover, confirmatory drilling had also commenced at Flat Mine Nababeep, where an inferred mineral resource of 1 million tons was reported in March, 2021.
The Okiep district is currently undergoing a major revival against the backdrop of surging copper prices, Orion previously said.
The company had, however, been frustrated by slow delivery of results from laboratories that are swamped with requests for tests as copper exploration activity resurges.
BUSINESS REPORT