JSE- and ASX-listed Orion Minerals recorded a productive March quarter, with several significant developments across its business, which the company expects will deliver important outcomes in the second half of the year, MD and CEO Errol Smart says.

In terms of project development, an early production assessment for the Prieska copper/zinc project, in Kimberley, in the Northern Cape, has been fast-tracked, with investigations into phasing the project development to bring forward the first concentrate production and evaluate remnant pillar mining potential, expected to be completed by the third quarter.

The decision to investigate early production, together with the mining of underground pillars, should allow Orion to produce first concentrate 14 months earlier than originally envisioned in the 2020 bankable feasibility study, Smart acclaims.

Resource in-fill drilling started at the 105 Level supergene resource at Prieska to support potential early production from openpit mining.

A 6 000 m underground diamond drilling programme is under way, targeting remnant pillars at Prieska, with a mineral resource update expected to be estimated by the third quarter.

Discussions with banks and financiers regarding the financing for the Prieska Deeps project are continuing in parallel with the engineering assessment of the early works opportunities.

Discussions have also been initiated with potential financiers who have expressed interest in funding the early dewatering and production plan.

Orion extended an agreement to consolidate ownership of the highly prospective Jacomynspan nickel/copper/cobalt project, located 65 km north of Prieska, to provide additional time for the owners to discuss a potential expanded and revised transaction, whereby additional prospective Southern African nickel projects may be combined with the Jacomynspan project.

Nickel, an essential component in electric vehicle batteries, fits well into its strategy of being a green metals producer.

“We are also progressing the investigation of technologies to extract the precursor battery metal products and generate premium product for sale with a local refining/beneficiation plant,” says Smart.

EXPLORATION

A successful maiden drilling programme was completed on the Koperberg – Carolusberg line of intrusives at the Okiep copper project in the Northern Cape, with 25 diamond drill holes completed.

Assay results have confirmed historically reported drill results and highlighted the presence of significant shallow mineralisation.

Orion has made a new copper/nickel discovery within Okiep, with the first drill hole undertaken to test a SkyTEM anomaly with coincident magnetic and electromagnetic anomalies at the Nous prospect, which the company says provides strong validation for its modern exploration methodology.