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MODERN MINING
September 2015
feature
COUNTRY FOCUS –
NAMIBIA
T
he mine, located 28 km to the east
of Swakopmund, was operated as
the Deblin mine (not to be con-
fused, incidentally, with the De-
blin copper prospect in northern
Namibia) from the late 1960s through to 1991.
Initially only lead was extracted from the mine
but it was later realised that the orebody could
also support a zinc mining operation and a
zinc flotation circuit was added to the plant
in 1974. During its final years of operation
(1986 to 1991) the mine milled around 356 000
tonnes of ore (grading around 5,3 % zinc and
1,6 % lead) to produce approximately 38 000
tonnes of zinc concentrate and 14 000 tonnes
of lead concentrate.
Deblin was abandoned by the owners in
1992, apparently due to a combination of low
metal prices at the time and some labour prob-
lems. Since acquiring the project in 2009, North
River has dewatered the mine (whose two low-
est levels had flooded) and returned it to a
serviceable state. On surface, it has removed
the old plant, which used technology that is
now outdated – and which, in any event, had
been vandalised subsequent to the mine’s clo-
sure and was beyond any refurbishment.
A major plus for the project is that it is
located in an area which has excellent infra-
structure – in terms of water, power and
transport links – and a long history of min-
ing, with all that this implies in terms of the
availability of mining skills and engineering
support. The operating mines in the area are
Rössing and Langer Heinrich, both large-scale
uranium mining operations, and they will soon
be joined by the US$2 billion Husab uranium
mine, now well into the construction phase.
North River completed a Definitive Feasi
bility Study (DFS) on the project late last year,
which detailed a mining/processing operation
with annual throughput of 250 000 tonnes at
an average grade of 9 % (Pb + Zn) producing
19 100 tonnes of metal in concentrate, as well
as 280 000 ounces per annum of silver as a
byproduct. It estimated a 13-month schedule to
bring the mine into production and an initial
mine life of three-and-a-half years (includ-
ing ramp up and ramp down) based on a life
of mine plan of 813 000 tonnes (including
inferred resources) at 6,2 % zinc, 2,7 % lead
and 44 ppm silver.
The original Deblin operation was very shal-
low – the orebody was mined to a depth of
North River presses ahead
with
Namibia’s Minister of Mines
and Energy, Obeth Kand-
joze, pictured on site with
North River’s CEO, James
Beams.
Notwithstanding a sharp fall-off in recent months in the
price of both zinc and lead, AIM-listed North River Resources
remains committed to its Namib project (which involves
reopening a past-producing, lead-zinc underground mine
in Namibia) and is hoping to make a final investment
decision by early next year. In the meantime, as CEO James
Beams recently explained to
Modern Mining’s
Arthur
Tassell, the company is continuing its ongoing underground
development programme at Namib and is also poised to
start the Front End Engineering & Design (FEED) phase of
the low-capex, brownfield project.