After a rapid decline in 2008, Weatherly Namibia has made a strong comeback in the country after the sale of the copper smelter in Tsumeb in mid-2010 and then reopening the Otjihase and Matchless mines at the end of the same year.

According to MD Craig Thomas, the first copper concentrate was produced in February 2011.

The company, through the Matchless and Otjihase mines, near Windhoek, currently produces between 5 000 t/y and 5 500 t/y of copper metal in concentrate, just short of its 7 000 t/y target.

“We are getting there and it is only a matter of when, not if, the target will be reached consistently. Otjihase is challenging in the sense that we are mining the older sections and, as we go in, we need to use the tailings as backfill to create pillars.

Matchless is doing well and the older mine on that site will soon also be reopened and then production will increase further. We are also proud of the fact that almost 600 jobs have been created to date at these operations.”

The company’s plans do not end there – Tschudi, some 20 km west of Tsumeb, is also soon to be developed, and Weatherly plans to have the mine operational by mid-2014.

Tschudi’s geology allows for a different method of copper processing. The copper can be extracted with the use of acid, unlike the flotation method used at Matchless and Otjihase. The technique uses heap leaching, solvent extraction and electrowinning – in essence, this means dissolving the copper out of the rock and then getting it out of the solution. The final product is refined copper metal, which does not need to go to a smelter or a refinery. This will all be done on site.

The development of Tschudi will create around 500 more jobs and initially cost in the region of N$750-million. It will add to the economic growth of Tsumeb, which saw some decline in the past five years but is now firmly on the road to recovery.

Once operational, Tschudi will add 17 000 t of copper metal a year to the company’s production, and Thomas says that, with the expansion of Matchless, up to 10 000 t of copper may also be produced each year from the underground mines.

While a lot of exploration and some smaller- scale openpit and underground mining have been carried out at Tschudi, the mine has never been fully operational and, for Weatherly, Tschudi is “a big deal, especially taking into account that refined copper will be produced on site”.