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MODERN MINING
July 2016
COUNTRY FOCUS
BOTSWANA
feature
recent drilling programme Cupric on occasion
had up to 27 diamond rigs – from as many as
four different drilling contractors – active at
Zone 5.
Tsimako said that the Starter Project is the
initial phase of what Cupric calls the ‘Hybrid
Project’ – the combination of the Zone 5 deposit
with the Boseto assets – and would comprise
an underground mine at Zone 5 with the ore
being trucked to Boseto for processing in the
upgraded and expanded concentrator plant at
a rate of 10 000 tonnes/day or 3,65 Mt/a to pro-
duce approximately 50 000 t/a of copper and
1,2 Moz/a of silver contained in a high-grade
(approximately 42 % Cu) concentrate. Tsimako
told delegates that operating costs would be in
the region of US$37/tonne of ore processed.
The current capacity of the Boseto plant
Core shed at the Zone 5 site.
Mining sequence for the Zone 5 mine
is 3 Mt/a and Cupric believes it can easily be
upgraded to treat 3,65 Mt/a. This will involve
the repair, modification and enhancement of
some existing circuits, as well as additions such
as a new secondary cone crusher, increased flo-
tation capacity and a new concentrate filter.
While Cupric’s planning is based on the proj-
ect being connected to the Botswana electricity
grid when it comes on stream in 2019, Boseto
does have its own diesel-powered 18 MW
power plant which will be adequate (once its
capacity is increased to 22 MW) to allow opera-
tions to start up should there be any delay in
establishing this connection. The Boseto site is
also served by a plus 10 000 m
3
/day wellfield
which – again with some expansion – will sup-
ply all the water the plant requires.
The underground mine at Zone 5 will
involve the development of three declines –
the Central, North Central and North declines.
The mining method to be used will be sub-level
open stoping (SLOS). As Tsimako pointed out,
a number of mining methods were examined
by the project team including sub-level cav-
ing, shrinkage stoping, cut-and-fill stoping and
top slicing, with SLOS emerging as the prefer-
able method. He noted that the declines would
be developed from boxcuts providing access
through 40 m of Kalahari sand.
Breaking down the project schedule,
Tsimako said work would start on the box-
cut and infrastructure development in 2017
with mine development following later in the
year and the concentrator upgrade beginning
in H2 2017. The first concentrate, he said,