Modern Mining July 2016

COUNTRY FOCUS BOTSWANA

ran into trouble in 2014/15 and neither is now operational. The collapse of DCB, which owned Boseto, created an opportunity for Cupric when it purchased most of the company’s assets in Botswana, including the modern Boseto con- centrator plant, which will now be upgraded and integrated into the Khoemacau Project. As Tsimako explained to delegates at the BRSC, Khoemacau’s flagship deposit at this stage is its Zone 5 deposit (roughly 35 km from Boseto), a strata-bound body with an average width of 10 m, a strike length of 4,2 km, a dip of 56 to 60 degrees and competent stratigra- phy. Zone 5 hosts a large sulphide resource of 100,3 Mt at a grade of 1,95 % Cu and 19,9 g/t Ag, with 43,4 Mt of this total being in the M&I category. It is, incidentally, one of the most intensely drilled deposits in Southern Africa, with Cupric and its predecessors hav- ing completed nearly 200 000 m of drilling at the site. The intensity of the drilling can be gauged from the fact that during its most

Left: The processing plant at the Boseto site. Its current capacity is 3 Mt/a but it will be upgraded to enable it to treat 3,65 Mt/a. Below: A drill site at Zone 5. During its most recent drilling programme, Cupric had up to 27 diamond rigs active at Zone 5 (photo: Khoemacau).

The underground mine at Zone 5 will involve the initial development of three declines, with a further two following once the project is expanded to 6,1 Mt/a.

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July 2016  MODERN MINING  33