Name of the Project
Haib copper project.

Location
The project is partially located in the Namaqua-Natal province, in Namibia, called the Richtersveld geological subprovince.

Project Owner/s
Mineral explorer and developer Deep-South Resources.

Project Description
An updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) has shown the Haib project to be amenable to bioheap-leaching.

The PEA envisages a life-of-mine of 24 years and a throughput of 20-million tonnes a year, with copper recovery estimated at 80% and production estimated at 35 332 t/y of copper cathode and 51 081 t/y of copper sulphate.

The mine design is based on openpit methods. As the deposit basically comprises hard-rock material, the mining operations will involve the drill and blast of all excavated material, which will be segregated by cutoff grade.

The mining fleet will consist of appropriately sized hydraulic excavators and off-highway dump trucks, supported by standard opencut drilling and auxiliary equipment.

There will be no tailings. The spent heaps will be rehabilitated and left in place. Owing to environmental reasons and water resources, the tailings from the pH adjustment process and the iron removal process will be disposed onto the spent heaps using filtered dry-stacked tailings.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a discount 7.5% rate, of $977-million and an internal rate of return 30.1%, with a payback of 4.22 years.

Capital Expenditure
Capital expenditure is estimated at $341-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Deep-South Resources has filed an application with the High Court of Namibia on behalf of its subsidiary Haib Minerals for an order to review the decision of the Minister of Mines and Energy.

This follows the Minister’s refusal to renew Haib’s licence EPL 3140 that covers the copper project.

The application also seeks an urgent interdict to prevent the Ministry of Mines and Energy from granting a licence over the same licence area to another party.

The respondents to the affidavit are the Minister of Mines and Energy, the Mining Commissioner and Orange River Exploration and Mining.

Orange River is cited, owing to its possible interest in the matter since it applied for an exclusive prospecting licence extending over the Haib copper deposit on November 12, 2020.

Deep-South has stated its intention to vigorously contest the Minister’s decision by all means necessary and available under the applicable laws of Namibia, as well as international laws. 

The company maintains that, in its application for renewal and subsequent representations made, it clearly demonstrated its having met all criteria under the Minerals Prospecting and Mining Act and licence conditions to justify the renewal of its licence.

Deep-South was notified in June of the Minister’s refusal to renew the licence and could not, since then, advance the project to prefeasibility study stage and complete a proposed drilling programme.

The Ministry had issued all permits required for the drilling programme prior to the Minister’s refusal to renew the licence.

The company has terminated all work on site and has proceeded with the retrenchment of employees on site.

The company is also investigating its international legal options and will disclose its strategy in due course.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
METS Engineering Group (updated PEA); Knight Piésold Consulting (scoping studies and assessments); Csiro (conduct bio-assisted heap-leaching column testwork); and METS Engineering Group of Australia (testwork supervision).

Contact Details for Project Information
Deep-South Resources (Namibia), tel +264 61 435 8267 or email info@deepsouthresources.com.