PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A feasibility study for unlisted International Base Metals’ Omitiomire copper oxide project, in Namibia, has placed a $38.5-million price tag on the project’s development.
Three small pits would provide the 40 000 t/m processing plant, and would allow the Omitiomire project to produce a total of 25 570 t of copper.
MD Frank Bethune said that a far larger processing plant was envisioned for the full sulphide and oxide resource, at a later stage.
The small oxide processing plant would then continue to operate in parallel to the larger processing plant to treat the remaining oxide ore. Should this bigger plant not be built, the small oxide plant could process more ore than the 3.1-million tonnes envisaged in the feasibility study.
Bethune said that the next steps in the project would be the application for a mining licence and securing sufficient funds to develop the project.
The project was estimated to have a net present value of $30-million, and an internal rate of return of 21.6%.