Mining Intelligence and News
Namibia

Tschudi Mine

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Overview

Mine TypeStockpile
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Copper
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotTschudi is a modern open pit mine with state of the art heap leach processing infrastructure. The mine was constructed in 2015 and produced over 80kt LME Grade A copper cathode up until 2020, when it was placed on care and maintenance.

Consolidated Copper plans to resume production of refined LME grade copper cathode at Tschudi during 2024 from existing ore stockpiles and is undertaking engineering studies into a restart of mining from the existing open pit.

Initiatives are targeting an extension of Tschudi’s mine life to over ten years, supporting a sustainable, long life restart of the operation.

On August 22, 2024, Consolidated Copper Corp (CCC) has successfully restarted the Tschudi copper plant, producing LME Grade A copper cathode in Namibia for the first time in four years.

Recommissioning the Tschudi processing plant has created 61 new Namibian jobs and more than 75% of the budget for this first phase of the mine restart has been spent locally.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Consolidated Copper Corp. 100 % Indirect
Consolidated Copper Corp owns the Tschudi mine.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Sedimentary

Summary:

The Tschudi Project area is located within the Otavi Mountainland of northern Namibia, which forms part of the Northern Carbonate Platform of the Pan African Damaran orogen. The Damara Supergroup is an orogenic belt that was deposited on a pre-1.0 Ga granitoid basement, the Grootfontein Basement Complex. It is composed of a 400km wide north-east trending arm, as well as two coastal arms, that all join in the region of Swakopmund, on the western coast of Namibia.

The Tschudi orebody is hosted within the basal arenite of the Mulden Group, the Tschudi Formation, unconformably overlying the Otavi dolomites. The orebody transgresses from the Huttenberg dolomites, through the basal conglomerate, and up into the clean arenites for approximately 15 - 20m.

The Tschudi Deposit hosts various different mineralization facies, separated out into oxide, transitional and sulphide zones. The copper mineralization is preferentially developed in the base of the arenite sequence on the southern limb of the syncline, as a disseminated, continuously distributed roughly planar sheet, varying from two metres to at least 40m thick. There is a continuous basal mineralized zone termed the Lower Zone lying on the dolomite surface, with occasional lenses/pods of mineralization occurring several metres above constituting the Upper Zone. These lenses plunge downdip, towards the base of the syncline. The mineralization is best developed within the medium to fine grained feldspathic arenites and sub-greywackes. Pyrite often occurs in the fine grained argillites near the base of the arenites, but these seldom contain copper mineralization. At surface outcrop the oxide mineralization occurs over a strike length of approximately 2.5km, and continues down to approximately 55m vertical depth. There is then a transitional zone of mixed sulphid oxide mineralization to a vertical depth of approximately 75m, followed by a dominantly sulphide zone. The mineralization does locally transgress into the dolomites, as void fillings, in joints, fractures and shear zones. The mineralization is open ended to depth, but is not present to any great degree in the opposite limb of the syncline. There are sporadic soil anomaly indications of copper further along the dolomite-sandstone contact, as well as in the nose of the fold.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

CommodityUnits20172016
Copper t 14,75915,884
All production numbers are expressed as cathode.

Operational metrics

Metrics201920172016
Annual production capacity 17,000 t of copper cathode17,000 t of copper cathode17,000 t of copper cathode
Ore tonnes mined 2,661 kt2,732 kt
Total tonnes mined 22,417 kt25,688 kt

Production Costs

CommodityUnits2017
C1 cash costs Copper USD 5,288 / t  

Financials

Units2017
Revenue M USD 75.1  
Operating Income M USD -32.4  
Gross profit M USD -16.1  
Pre-tax Income M USD -41.1  

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Sep 4, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Sep 25, 2024

Aerial view:

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