Discovery Metals says has enough water for Maun Copper Project
| Friday July 3, 2009 00:00
In fact, water availability significantly exceeds the requirements of currently planned operations with more than four times the project requirement available over a 15-year period.
Discovery Metals' Managing Director, Brad Sampson said this is an important milestone for the Boseto Copper Project. A water resource has been identified with capacity to more than meet the project's operational requirements, thus eliminating a key project risk. 'We have now demonstrated that neither the life nor scale of the project is likely to be constrained by water supply.'
After an extensive programme which included the drilling of eleven water exploration boreholes, the water resources planned for use at Boseto are contained within two of the five potential groundwater resource areas identified during the water exploration programme.
These were undertaken as part of the Bankable Feasibility Study on the Boseto Copper Project. Borefields which will tap these resources will be situated within 15 km of the proposed plant site. Water quality is suitable for use in the Boseto process plant.
Identified water resources support consideration of mine life extension and/or expansion of production beyond the currently planned 10 year x 2Mtpa base case for Boseto.
The Boseto Copper Project is located within a belt of significant copper silver mineralisation that extends from the well known and more highly developed Zambian Copper Belt across north west Botswana and into Namibia. The poorly explored and undeveloped portion of this belt in north west Botswana is known as the Kalahari Copper Belt.