Development of Qhoree copper mine on track
Brian Benza | Friday June 17, 2016 14:25
In an interview with BusinessWeek, Cupric Africa chief executive officer, Sam Rasmussen said they estimate to spend about $350 million (P3.7 billion) to build the underground copper and silver mine and start mining with the first concentrate expected to be sold in 2019.
Cupric Africa is the parent company to Khoemacau.
At the beginning, Qhoree mine will produce 50,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate and 1.4 million ounces of silver per annum.
“We hope to start building the mine next year. The estimate is to spend just under $350 million and we are still exploring available options for funding. We are also exploring building another processing plant at Qhoree at a later stage to complement the one we already have at Boseto,” he said.
Last year Khoemacau concluded a deal through an offer of compromise to buy the mothballed Boseto Mine, which is only 30 kilometres away from the Qhoree Mine.
According to Rasmussen they have employed about 300 people at the moment with some doing the exploration while others carry out maintenance work at the Boseto plant.
“Once we are fully operational we estimate to have staff of about 800 people including both contractors and full time employees,” he said.
The company is also in negotiations with government over the connection of the northwestern region to the national grid.
The region, which hosts the copper rich Kalahari Copperbelt, is currently not connected to the power grid and government is installing transmission lines to the area.
Rasmussen, however, expressed excitement over Botswana Power Corporation’s (BPC) plans to build transmission lines from Morupule to the northwest region. Speaking at the mining conference on Tuesday, BPC director of Transmission, Ncheba Mothebe said they will soon award the tender for the building of a transmission line from Morupule to Toteng via Orapa.
“That’s good news for us. Our only task will be to then build our own line from Toteng to the mining site which is about 30km away,” he said.
Former operators of Boseto mine, Discovery Metals, reportedly spent $3 million (P30 million) monthly to fuel the diesel generators at Boseto to power the mine.
Initially expected to cost about $200 million, the development of the new mine will be based on a revised feasibility study, which has proved a larger copper and silver resource at the mine.
The mine is projected to have a productive lifespan of at least 25 years.
Founded in 2010, US-based Cupric is owned by its management, which includes former Freeport-McMoRan President Timothy Snider, and Global Natural Resource Investments (GNRI), formerly a unit of Barclays until a management buyout last month.