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November 2015
MODERN MINING
5
MINING News
Weatherly International, which owns
copper mines in Namibia and is listed on
London’s AIM, increased its production
for the quarter ending 30 September
2015, being the first quarter of the finan
cial year ending 30 June 2016. It also
reports it is considering increasing the
capacity of its new Tschudi project in
northern Namibia.
In September, the company, which –
apart from Tschudi – owns the Otjihase
and Matchless mines in the Windhoek
area, increased its quarterly production
guidance by 15 % from an average of
1 000 tonnes per month to an average
of 1 150 tonnes per month of copper
cathode. This revised guidance level was
exceeded by a further 3 %, with produc
tion averaging 1 185 tonnes per month.
Production for CY2015 is now expected
to reach approximately 10 400 tonnes of
copper cathode, a 4 % increase above the
previously advised level of 10 000 tonnes.
Having operated at in excess of 80 % of
design capacity for a full quarter, Weatherly
has now confirmed that Commercial
Production status has been achieved at
Tschudi and says that from 1 October
onwards revenue and operating costs at
Tschudi will no longer be capitalised.
Weatherly is currently updating
resource and reserve estimations for
Tschudi as of 30 June 2015. These esti
mates, it says, will be combined with all
mining and processing experience gained
to date in order to produce updated min
ing and processing schedules.
Weatherly to investigate increasing Tschudi’s capacity
As announced in May, recruitment
efforts have been ongoing for a General
Manager for Tschudi, and Weatherly
reports it has now appointed Peter
Christians to the position, commencing
work in December.
Christians is a Namibian mining engi
neer with over 30 years of international
mining experience. His most recent role
was Country Manager and MD for Reptile
Uranium Namibia, a subsidiary of ASX-
listed Deep Yellow Limited. He has held
senior management positions across the
globe in Namibia, Tanzania, Russia, Mali,
Ghana, Australia and the USA with com
panies including Rio Tinto, AngloGold
Ashanti, Bannerman Resources, Uranium
One, ARMZ and Gold Fields.
On the subject of Tschudi, Weatherly
The Tschudi heap leach, SX/EW copper project in northern Namibia.
says that during the operational ramp-up,
it has had the opportunity to stress test
various parts of the heap leach, SX-EW
plant and to gather large quantities of per
formance data on the heap leach and plant
performance. Based on this data, it has
determined that the infrastructure could
be upgraded from a capacity of 17 000
tonnes to 20 000 tonnes of copper cath
ode per annum (an approximately 18 %
increase in production rates) via a capital
expenditure of US$1,2 million.
The company says that once it has
completed the reserve update exercise
mentioned above, mining and process
ing schedule options will be evaluated to
quantify the potential incremental finan
cial benefits of a production expansion to
20 000 tonnes per annum.
Pangolin recovers pyrope garnets at Malatswae
Pangolin Diamonds Corp, listed on the
TSX-V, has recovered pyrope garnets
with near-source surface features from its
wholly-owned Malatswae diamond proj
ect, located 90 km south-east of the Orapa
kimberlite field in Botswana. Four samples
produced over 14 pyrope garnets, with
five grains in two samples. The samples
are spaced from 200-400 m apart and posi
tioned directly over a magnetic anomaly of
similar dimensions.
Samples MTI64 and MTI83 each pro
duced five pyrope garnets ranging from
0,4-0,8 mm inmaximumdimension. In sam
ple MTI64, all of the grains exhibit irregular
to well-formed trichitic pits and sinuous
channels that are characteristic of chemi
cal weathering. Three of the pyrope have
weathering textures that overprint primary
surfaces formed in the kimberlite magma,
suggesting little to no transport.
Four pyrope in sample MTI83 have
primary surfaces that are overprinted by
weathering textures, including fragile
features that would not survive during
transport. Secondary material on the MTI83
pyrope includes Mg-bearing clays that may
derive from altered kimberlite. Many of the
features are identical to features on pyrope
from weathering profiles over kimberlites
elsewhere in Botswana.
Pangolin’s President and CEO, Dr Leon
Daniels, comments, “We are excited to
receive these important results for the
Malatswae project. Previous sampling on
the project has produced many indicators
with proximal to source features including
diamond. These new results are excep
tional in having features that are identical
to pyrope garnets directly from weathered
kimberlite, with no evidence of transport.
Some of the fragile textures are directly
related to interaction between the kimber
lite magma and the garnets. The samples
were collected directly over a geophysical
aeromagnetic anomaly which is a signifi
cant association. Additional surveys are
underway to define the best areas for drill
ing, which is scheduled to occur during the
current Q4.”