Botswana's largest copper mine commissioned

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Thursday June 7, 2012 00:00

 

At such a production rate, Boseto which was built at a cost of P1.2 billion, is the country's largest copper mine, overtaking BCL (25,000 tonnes) and African Copper's Mowana Mine (5,000 tonnes).In a statement, Discovery said milling, flotation and production of copper-silver concentrate is expected this month with open pit mining from the Zeta deposit progressively ramping up with the last 350 tonne excavator scheduled for delivery to site in July. 

'Commissioning has commenced within the timeline communicated to shareholders in 2010. We are now focused on bringing the plant to design production rate as quickly as possible. Given that the company was only awarded the Boseto Mining licence in December 2010, the efforts of all involved to construct this project within 18 months deserve to be recognised,' Discovery Metals managing director, Brad Sampson stated.

According to the company, all of the planned truck fleet is on site and  being deployed into operations as the workforce is progressively employed and trained. Although the mine has started as an open pit, it is set to open an underground operation by the end of next year, while a second adjacent deposit, Plutus will be opening in the next couple of years to ramp up Discovery's production to 50,000 tonnes per year. 'Open pit operations at Zeta open pit are planned to continue to a depth of approximately 150m finishing in the fourth quarter of 2013. This timing should allow the Zeta underground to be developed without interference from the open pit.  'The open pit operations are planned to scale back by approximately one third when Zeta underground mining is underway assuming the current plant limitation of 3Mtpa. This will allow considerable flexibility in overall production planning without the need for additional capital equipment purchases,' reads the statement.

Although the company says it has not made a decision of operating the Zeta pit itself or contracting it out, current expectations regarding Boseto's open pit unit mining are that costs will be higher than the $1.35 per tonne presented in the bankable feasibility study (BFS) in 2010 due to increases in diesel and explosives. Unlike many other mines, however, Discovery says it anticipates offsetting higher mining costs by open pit re-scheduling for lower strip ratios and better grades which are expected to be available from exploration success.

Developed at a cost of P1.2 billion ($175 million), the Boseto Zone is part of Discovery's Kalahari Copper Belt prospecting area-covering 9,656km2.  The company is planning production of about 36,000 tonnes of copper and more than one million ounces of silver per annum over an initial 15-year mine life at the project. 

Discovery's major assets in Botswana are Boseto and Dikoloti in the North East District, which is a joint venture with the Japan Oil Gas Metals & Energy Corporation (JOGMEC), who have earned a right to 60 percent of the project. In January 2011, Discovery Metals was granted 16 new prospecting licenses covering 14,425 square kilometres in southern Botswana, which could possibly host an extension of the world-class Kalahari manganese field.