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May 2015
MODERN MINING
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EVENTS
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2015/05/14 12
Executives of Cupric Canyon and Khoemacau Copper Mining at a ‘turning the soil’
event held last year at the site of the tailings dam for Khoemacau’s planned new
copper mine in north-western Botswana (photo: Khoemacau Copper Mining).
of copper in concentrate with commissioning scheduled for 2018
and it will be fascinating to hear how advanced the company is
with its plans.
The proposed Khoemacau mine is the bright spot in an other
wise depressed copper mining sector in Botswana. Australian
company Discovery Metals, which commissioned the Boseto
open-pit copper mine in 2012, appointed an administrator in
February this year, while African Copper, which mines in the
Francistown area at Mowana and Thakadu, appears to be strug-
gling. Indeed in a recent trading update it said that should “the
Group not secure additional funds and if current market condi-
tions prevail, the Board believes that the company may not then
be able to continue as a going concern.”
Boseto, which is equipped with a 3 Mt/a concentrator, is
located adjacent to the site of Khoemacau’s proposed mine. Cupric
Canyon was in talks with Discovery a few months back on a possi-
ble deal between the two companies but these were discontinued
earlier this year.
As always at the conference, there will be several presenta-
tions on Botswana’s extensive coal and energy resources, with the
presenters including Gabaake Gabaake of Tlou Energy (which has
the Lesedi CBM project), Frazer Tabeart of African Energy and
Mashale Phumaphi of Shumba Coal. African Energy controls the
Sese, Mmamantswe and Mmamabula West projects while Shumba
Coal is developing the Sechaba thermal coal project.
Given current coal prices and transport constraints in Botswana
and South Africa, Botswana’s coal sector remains becalmed
although African Energy can at least point to the fact that it final-
ised a joint venture over Sese in January this year with copper and
nickel miner First Quantum Minerals (FQM), which is Zambia’s
(and probably Africa’s) biggest copper producer. African Energy
and FQM are looking at developing a 300 to 600 MW power sta-
tion at Sese able to transmit power into the regional power market.
Finally, the conference will feature a panel discussion on the
future of Botswana’s resource sector. This will be chaired by
Boikobo Paya, Head of Research at the Botswana International
University of Science and Technology and previously Permanent
Secretary in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water
Resources. The panelists will include Charles Siwawa, CEO of
the Botswana Chamber of Mines, well-known economist Keith
Jefferis of Econsult, Mashale Phumaphi of Shumba Coal and
Nchidzi Mmolawa, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry
of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources.