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 ordered the Ministry of Mines and Energy to file documents supporting the decision of the Minister to refuse to renew Deep-South’s renewal of the Haib Copper licence.

The Ministry is compelled to file these documents by November 11, after not filing complete documents pertaining to the decision of the Minister on October 21, as required by the court.

The court will convene a hearing on November 11 to define further procedures regarding a review of the Minister’s decision.

Deep-South was notified in June of the Ministry’s refusal to review the licence, including an exclusive prospecting licence over the area covered by the project, hampering the company from advancing the project.

The company maintains that the Ministry was kept well apprised, with no objection on its part, of a proposed change from a prefeasibility study to an upgraded preliminary economic assessment (PEA), and the start of a full feasibility study that had already been started at the time of the refusal.

Moreover, the Ministry issued all permits required for the drilling programme and was well aware that Deep-South had completed the programme.

As a result of the Minister’s refusal to renew the licence, Deep-South terminated all work on site and proceeded with the retrenchment of its employees working on site.

The company is vigorously contesting the decision by all means necessary. In its application for renewal and subsequent representations made to the Ministry, the company maintains that it clearly demonstrated having met all criteria under the Minerals Prospecting and Mining Act of the country to justify the renewal of its licence.

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.