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 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 not be any 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
Dates for the final hearing between Deep-South and the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy has been set for October 3 and 4.

During a case management meeting on June 30, which served to prepare for the final hearing, the High Court of Namibia ordered Deep-South subsidiary Haib Minerals to file its heads of argument (HoA) by September 12, while the Minister of Mines and other respondents have until September 19 to file their HoA.

The matter pertains to the renewal of the exclusive prospecting licence 3140 covering the Haib copper project, which was refused by Namibia Mines and Energy Minister Tom Alweendo in June 2021.

At the time, the Ministry cited Deep-South’s inability to advance the licence to prefeasibility study (PFS) stage and complete a proposed drill programme as planned.

The company maintains that the issue was a misunderstanding and that government remained apprised of a proposed change – from a PFS to an upgraded preliminary economic assessment instead, as well as the start of a full feasibility study.

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.