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MODERN MINING
September 2015
feature
COUNTRY FOCUS –
NAMIBIA
L
ocated 300 km north of Windhoek
and 70 km north of the town of
Otjiwarongo, the Otjikoto deposit,
which was overlain by calcrete,
was discovered in the late 1990s by
Anglovaal Mining which was exploring for
base metals. The pace of development, howev-
er, was slow until B2Gold – the sixth company
to be involved at Otjikoto – acquired the proj-
ect in 2011 with a determination to bring the
deposit to account as fast as possible. The com-
pany received its mining licence in December
2012, bush clearing started in January 2013 and
in April of the same year the official ground-
breaking ceremony was held, marking the start
of the construction phase. Just 20 months later
(in December 2014), the mine was able to pour
its first gold, well within schedule.
The project’s development was led by Bill
Lytle as MD of B2Gold Namibia, who has now
moved on to fresh duties within B2Gold (as
VP, Africa). His successor is Mark Dawe, who
has huge experience of mining in Namibia as
he was previously MD of the Okorusu fluor-
spar mine, Namibia’s sole fluorspar operation.
Okorusu – located quite close to Otjikoto –
operated successfully for many years but was
recently closed due to the depletion of the
orebody. Dawe is also a past-President of the
Chamber of Mines of Namibia.
An entirely conventional open-pit operation,
Otjikoto currently operates a fleet of 12 Cat 777D
(100-ton capacity) haul trucks loaded by a
Liebherr 9250 hydraulic excavator, a Liebherr
984 hydraulic excavator and a Cat 6018 hydrau-
lic face shovel. Additional ancillary equipment
such as Cat D9 and D10 dozers, Cat 834K rub-
ber tyre dozers, and Cat 16M motor graders
supports the load and haul activities. Drilling
is currently being undertaken by one Cat 6240
drill, two Sandvik DK25 drills, one Cat 5125
drill and a Sandvik DP1500i drill. As the mine
continues to expand and go deeper, the mining
fleet will also expand to meet required produc-
tion targets.
On the processing side, the mine uses grav-
ity circuits and leach/CIP processes to recover
the gold. The plant was built with a 2,5 Mt/a
capacity but B2Gold announced last year that it
would be expanded to allow it to treat 3 Mt/a.
Otjikoto gold mine
bursts out of the
The new Otjikoto gold mine in Namibia, which achieved
commercial production – one month ahead of schedule
– at the end of February this year, is performing strongly,
justifying the decision of Canadian gold miner B2Gold
Corp to invest US$244 million in its development. Otjikoto
is one of only two gold mines in Namibia – and by far
the biggest – and can justly claim to have rejuvenated
Namibia’s gold mining sector.