Modern Mining September 2015

COUNTRY FOCUS – NAMIBIA

612 265 carats against a budget of 570 427 car- ats. Debmarine Namibia, Namdeb’s deep-water offshore arm, also performed well, produc- ing 1,27 million carats. Commenting on this achievement in its 2014 Annual Review, the Chamber of Mines of Namibia says this was the largest annual production recorded to date by Debmarine Namibia, breaking the production record for the third year in a row. A highlight for Namdeb in 2014 was the opening of the Sendelingsdrif mine on the Orange River in November, constructed at a cost of N$360 million, which will replace pro- duction from Daberas. The associated Red Area Complex in Oranjemund, a recovery and sort- ing facility commissioned earlier in 2014, treats the concentrate from Sendelingsdrif. It was inaugurated at the same time as Sendelingsdrif. Along with diamonds, the other main pil- lar of Namibia’s mining industry is uranium, although the hope of four or five new uranium mines being developed in the near term – a real prospect a few years back – has receded in the post-Fukushima era and there is currently only one new uranium project – Husab – under construction. The country’s first uranium mine, Rössing , was developed by Rio Tinto 70 km inland from Swakopmund in the 1970s and is still operating today, although at much below its nameplate capacity of 4 500 t/a of uranium oxide (U 3 O 8 ). A decision was taken by Rössing management last year to curtail operations from August 2014 onwards. Commenting on this deci- sion in a recent report to stakeholders, MD Werner Duvenhage said: “Naturally, curtailed

operations impacted on our production figures for the year. Thus, during 2014, we produced 1 543 tonnes of uranium oxide, compared with 2 409 tonnes in 2013. Our revenue decreased accordingly, i.e. by 19 per cent compared with the previous year. This drop was due to signifi- cantly lower market prices and sales volumes, which in turn led to a net loss after tax of N$91 million (2013: net profit after tax of N$32 mil- lion) from normal operations.” Rössing ranks as one of the world’s great open-pit operations, with the main (SJ) pit mea- suring 3 km by 1,5 km by 390 m deep. However, with operations having been curtailed, volumes are declining – 23 Mt of rock were mined during 2014 compared to 36 Mt in the previous year. Namibia got its second uraniummine in 2007

The new acid plant at the Tsumeb smelter in Namibia, part of a US$350 million investment by Dundee Precious Metals to expand and upgrade the Tsumeb facilities. The acid plant is now being commissioned and will be officially opened early next year (photo: Dundee Precious Metals).

The metallurgical plant of the new Otjikoto gold mine, which is also covered on page 32 of this issue (photo: B2Gold Namibia).

September 2015  MODERN MINING  27