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September 2015
MODERN MINING
39
feature
COUNTRY FOCUS –
NAMIBIA
According to Beams, very much so. “The driver
of the project is zinc, which will account for
around 65 % of revenue, and the consensus
view is that its price will be in line with the
DFS figure by 2017 – which is probably the year
in which Namib will come into full production,
assuming we do make a positive investment
decision,” he says. “Quite a bit of zinc produc-
tion is leaving the market – I’m thinking of the
closure of the big Century mine in Australia,
Lisheen in Ireland and a couple of the Canadian
mines – and is not being fully replaced by pro-
duction from new projects. The outlook for lead
is not quite as positive but certainly no worse
than for any of the other base metals while sil-
ver is not really an issue for Namib, as it is a
minor part of the projected revenue stream.”
Outlining the progress made on the project
since publication of the DFS, Beams – a for-
mer CFO of Anglo American’s copper division
– says a decision was taken at the beginning
of this year to change the board and senior
management structure to reflect the transi-
tion of Namib into the implementation phase.
“I was appointed as MD, replacing Martin
French, who had decided to step down after
doing sterling work in developing the project,
while Keith Marshall, who used to be MD of
Palabora Mining, and Ken Sangster, a hugely
experienced metallurgist and mining execu-
tive, who was with Rio Tinto for 15 years,
joined the board as non-executive directors.
In addition, Andy Little, a mining engineer
with over 30 years’ experience in constructing
and commissioning mines, was appointed as
Project Director.”
The past few months have also seen an
optimisation of the DFS to enhance the eco-
nomics. “In respect of the mining side of the
project, we’ve run a number of scenarios to see
how we can develop and run the mine more
efficiently,” says Beams. “We’ve come out of
that with essentially the same mine plan but
slightly different equipment choices and with
a recognition that mine development is on the
critical path to production. So we’re pushing
forward with the early development of the
second decline – the North decline – and we
already have a mining crew and loader on site
working on this. The North decline will give us
access to the northern section of the orebody,
which was hardly exploited historically and
which hosts over two-thirds of our reserves.”
Beams also says that supplementary met-
allurgical testwork undertaken by ALS
Laboratories since the release of the DFS has
allowed North River to define an optimal pro-
cess flowsheet for the Namib project and, in
particular, has addressed the problem of the
expected build-up of the iron sulphide mineral,
pyrrhotite, in the zinc cleaner circuit.
“The DFS proposed the use of magnetic
separation as a means of removing some of the
pyrrhotite from the circuit,” Beams explains.
“However, the results of tests which were only
completed after we published the DFS indi-
cated that this approach would not be effective
and led to our decision to embark on the sup-
plementary testwork programme. This testwork
has proved very valuable and has allowed us to
refine the flowsheet to allow the plant to treat
effectively a wide range of ores of varying min-
eral composition and to handle, in particular,
the pyrrhotite content. In essence, we’ve intro-
duced a separate zinc regrind circuit and also
selected an optimal reagent regime. Although
we will be getting accurate figures on costing
during the FEED phase, we believe the impact
on the plant capex will be minimal.”
Beams adds that the revised flowsheet pro-
vides a high level of confidence that the plant
will be able to deliver the required recoveries
and concentrate grades on a consistent basis.
He says it also greatly enhances the project’s
bankability as North River moves forward with
its financing plans and, in particular, its discus-
sions with debt financiers.
On the subject of mine life, Beams makes the
point that there is every prospect of the Namib
mine operating well beyond the three-and-half
years projected in the DFS. “In the northern
part of the orebody, we’ve only drilled the
resource down to 150 m – there’s not a single
hole below that,” he notes. “We’re currently
putting in an exploration drive from the south
orebody – we’re about a third complete – which
will allow deeper drilling of the northern ore-
body and we have every expectation that this
will result in a significant expansion of our
Geologists working in the
field at the Namib project.
“In respect of the
mining side of
the project, we’ve
run a number
of scenarios to
see how we can
develop and run
the mine more
efficiently.”
James Beams, CEO,
North River