Modern Mining May 2015

EVENTS

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. 

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