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
The High Court of Namibia has interdicted the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy from granting a mineral licence, including an exclusive prospecting licence (EPL) over the area covered by the Haib copper project.

The interdict and restraint order will be in force until the final determination of the application to the High Court to review the decision of the Minister not to renew the EPL 3140 held by Deep-South Resources.

"As disclosed in June, Deep-South received notice from the Ministry that its application for the renewal of its EPL had been denied, owing to the company’s inability to advance the EPL to prefeasibility [stage] and complete the proposed drilling programme as planned," the company said in a statement on September 1.

Deep-South maintains that the ministry was kept well apprised, during which it did not have any objections, of a proposed change from the prefeasibility study to an upgraded PEA and the start of a full feasibility study.

Deep-South has since terminated all work on site and has proceeded with the retrenchment of its employees on site as it works to resolve the impasse with the ministry.

"In its application for renewal and subsequent representations made to the Ministry, Deep-South maintains that it clearly demonstrated having met all criteria under the Act to justify the renewal of its licence," it stated.

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.