Orion Minerals MD Errol Smart
ASX- and JSE-listed Orion Minerals aims to reopen the Prieska zinc/copper project, in South Africa’s Northern Cape, in 2020.
Orion MD Errol Smart told delegates attending the Africa Downunder conference being held in Perth, this week, that the 12-month bankable feasibility study (BFS) for the project should be completed next quarter.
The BFS is being buoyed by the mine’s existing access to significant local and regional infrastructure, with mine infrastructure that already includes a regional power grid feed, bitumen access roads, access to a bulk, treated water supply and a 1 900 m landing strip.
The Prieska project once operated for 20 years and employed 4 500 people before it became uneconomic.
It has a defined maiden resource under the Orion ownership of 1.1-million tonnes of contained zinc, grading 3.8%, and 365 000 t of contained copper, grading an average 1.2%.
Mining and environmental applications have already been lodged, focused on initiating updated mine construction work by the second half of 2019.
“We are mounting an ongoing drilling programme with the objective of achieving an upgrade in the classification of a substantial portion of the total mineral resource and to test the currently open extensions of the deposit,” Smart said.
Additionally, Orion has embarked on securing a regional exploration footprint of around 1 790 km2.