Orion Minerals managing director, Errol Smart, said yesterday that completion of the drilling at the company’s Okiep Copper Project allows the company to speedily expand the operation’s life of mine and initial production profile.
Earlier this month, Orion Minerals secured two high priority prospecting rights that enable it to progress the Okiep copper project in the Northern Cape.
The company yesterday said it had received positive results from diamond drill holes completed at Flat Mine North and from Flat Mine South.
“Importantly, now that the Flat Mines Project is fully permitted for mining and that we have secured all the surrounding prospecting rights, this high-quality drilling data is expected to provide a pathway for Orion to fast track the expansion of the initial production profile and mine life outlined in our initial bankable feasibility study (BFS) which is now just weeks away from completion,” said Smart.
He added that the company was excited about the prospects and future of Okiep, “which is proving itself to be a world-class, build-ready” copper mine.
The drilling program that had now been completed at the project had confirmed the company’s expectations regarding the quality and reliability of the historical drilling data from Okiep.
Newmont and Goldfields as previous owners of Okiep in the Northern Cape of South Africa milled more than 77 million tons of high-quality sulphide copper ore from Orion’s current prospecting and mining rights.
The previous owners had relied on the Okiep laboratory’s high-quality geological work for assay checking and quality control. The laboratory also permitted tests to be undertaken for the samples from the Southern African region.
“While this specific drill program was performed to provide absolute assurance to our external technical experts, we were always certain of the quality of the data that we purchased in 2021,” explained Smart.
“We have already digitised 625 000m of downhole data from 5 026 drill holes that intersected dozens of mineralised bodies within the mining and prospecting right areas we have secured.”
With a ground holding of 703km² covering most of the copper mining district where a total of 105 million tons is reported to have been mined over the past 100 years, Okiep is expected to have a high productivity profile.
Of the 105 million tons previously mined, as much as 77 million tons were mined on the current prospecting and mining rights, with the Flat Mines Area and the current drilling program falling entirely within the mining rights.
These already “host several exciting historically drilled prospects and historical mines that offer the potential for additional mineral resources” through future drilling.
“With the confirmation drilling program now complete, geological and mineralisation envelope interpretations will be reviewed and adjusted where necessary, followed by an update of the Mineral Resource estimate including the new information. New geotechnical information will be used for input to mine design,” said the company.
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