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July 2016
MODERN MINING
35
COUNTRY FOCUS
BOTSWANA
feature
The existing power plant
at the Boseto site has a
capacity of 18 MW.
Hybrid Starter Phase – process flow diagram
would be produced in the first half of 2019.
The resource at Zone 5 is sufficient to support
a much higher production rate than 3,6 Mt/a
and – as explained by Tsimako – Cupric envis-
ages the Starter Project being followed by
the second stage of the Hybrid Project taking
capacity to 6,1 Mt/a initially (plus 80 000 t/a of
copper). The expansion to 6,1 Mt/a will involve
an additional two declines at Zone 5 and a
new 6,1 Mt/a plant and will cost an estimated
US$304 million.
The construction of this new Zone 5 plant
would free up the Boseto plant for further
expansion initiatives – based on existing
deposits at Boseto as well as the recently dis-
covered Zone 5 North deposit – which would
take capacity up to more than 10 Mt/a of ore (or
plus 100 000 t/a of copper).
Even the 100 000 t/a of copper production
rate, high as it is, is not the end of the expan-
sion possibilities offered by Cupric’s nearly
4 000 km
2
ground-holding in the Kalahari
Copperbelt. The company’s total mineral
inventory over its tenements is 437 Mt at an
average grade of 1,26 % copper and 14,2 g/t
silver. This includes the promising Banana
Zone located approximately 60 km south-west
of Zone 5 which has a substantial resource of
155 Mt at 0,85 % Cu and 11 g/t Ag. Tsimako
said the development of the Bananza Zone
and other resources could see Cupric pro-
ducing plus 150 000 t/a of copper. He added
that the Banana Zone was the subject of a
Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) but
that its development would almost certainly
require an entirely new processing plant.
With Zone 5 and Boseto being the current
focus of attention, it will probably be a few
years down the line before Cupric makes a deci-
sion on the Banana Zone.
Summing up the potential of Zone 5,
Tsimako said it was a well-defined, well-under-
stood, high-grade deposit ideal for mechanised
underground mining which could be developed
on a staged basis to reduce risk. He described
the project as being “execution ready” with a
“best in class” local management team already
in place and added that it had “industry lead-
ing economics”. He predicted that it would be
the project to finally unlock the massive poten-
tial of the Kalahari Copperbelt.
Report and photos (unless otherwise acknowledged) by
Arthur Tassell
The company’s
total mineral
inventory over
its tenements
is 437 Mt at an
average grade
of 1,26 % copper
and 14,2 g/t silver.