Overview
| Status | Care and Maintenance |
| Mine Type | Underground |
| Commodities |
|
| Mining Method |
- Cut & Fill
- Room-and-pillar
- Cemented backfill
|
| Production Start | ...  |
| Mine Life | 10 years (as of Jan 1, 2018) |
Two underground copper mines (Otjihase and Matchless) and an 800ktpa concentrator in Namibia on care and maintenance - operating until Sep 2015, producing high quality copper concentrate.
Mines and concentrator being maintained ready for immediate restart, with underground workings dewatered and ore faces accessible.
No production data is publicly available since mine acquisition by Bonohgroup Limited. |
Source:
p. 9,10
| Company | Interest | Ownership |
|
Bonohgroup Ltd.
|
100 %
|
Indirect
|
On 1 June 2018, Simon Kirkhope and Andrew Johnson were appointed as Joint Administrators of the Weatherly International plc.
Following no viable third party offers having been received and on the basis that a thorough marketing process had been run and a purchaser had not been found, the Administrators approved and accepted an offer received by Bonohgroup Limited, whose Director, John Sisay, is a person connected with Weatherly International PLC (“the Company”), to purchase the shares the Company held in WNSL, CARN and CARN Holding. CARN which held Berg Aukus and Weatherly (Namibia SL) LTD (St Lucia) “WNSL” which through Ongopolo Mining Ltd (Namibia) “OML” held the Tschudi mine, Central operations and the Tsumeb township and concentrator.
Exchange of contracts took place on 28 July 2020, following this on 2 September 2020 the share sale was completed and the shares in the Company’s subsidiaries were sold to Bonohgroup Limited (is a private company).
Contractors
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Summary:
The Matchless Amphibolite Belt is a conspicuous narrow northeast-southwest trending sequence consisting of amphibolite, chlorite-amphibole schist, talc schist and metagabbro which extends over a distance of 350km in the Southern Tectonostratigraphic Zone of the Damara Orogen. The Matchless Belt represents a sequence of metamorphosed tholeiitic basalts, which are the product of submarine volcanism. Stratigraphically the Matchless Amphibolite Member occurs within the Kuiseb Formation (Khomas Subgroup) of the Damara Sequence, which is a metapelitic sequence of biotite schists, with subordinate calcsilicate rocks and carbonaceous schists.
The Matchless deposit comprises six echelon shoots namely the Eastern Prospect, East Shoot, West Shoot, River Shoot, Western Prospect and Western Extension, extending over a strike length of 2.5km from the east to the west in that order. The East Shoot, West Shoot and River Shoot form the old Matchless Mine. The mineralisation occurs in amphibolites and quartz-sericite schist lying between the Matchless Amphibolite and the Footwall Amphibolite, dipping at 30o , 350o towards the north and plunges to the northwest. The mineralised zones are distinct pyrite chalcopyrite occurring in a quartz mica schist. A slight angular discordance between the mineralised zone and the Matchless Amphibolite was mapped on outcrop. The mineralisation is strata-bound and is of a massive sulphide type containing mainly pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and mi ........
Mining Methods
- Cut & Fill
- Room-and-pillar
- Cemented backfill
Summary:
A shoot called Matchless Western Extension, some 1,800m west of the old Matchless mine, was being mined by means of a decline that reached 11 Level. The shoot has a steep plunge to the northwest and the deposit dips at 35° to 45° which requires the decline to progress rapidly down dip.
Previously, the Matchless mine was operated successfully by a mining contractor using a cut and fill mining method. The planned mining method is a cut and fill method utilising 3.0m high lifts.
The Otjihase compartment extends from the surface down to a depth of approximately 260m below surface. The upper area, down to around 180m below surface was mined by JCI using a room and pillar system based on 5m by 5m square pillars with 15m wide rooms on dip and strike.
The ore is trucked to an underground crusher station immediately east of the Hoffnung East fault from where it is transported by means of 10 conveyor belt sections to a point where it is tipped into kibbles pulled by locomotives which take the ore the last 1.5km to the mill receiving bins on surface.
Source:
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Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Production:
| Commodity | Product | Units | 2015 | 2014 |
|
Copper
|
Concentrate
|
kt
| 14 | 21 |
|
Copper
|
Metal in concentrate
|
t
| | 5,086 |
Operational Metrics:
| Metrics | 2014 | 2013 |
|
Tonnes processed
| 290,081 t of ore | 299,680 t of ore |
Reserves at June 30, 2014:
Cut-off at 1% Cu.
| Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
|
Proven & Probable
|
2,441,008 t
|
Copper
|
1.52 %
|
37,141 t
|
|
Proven & Probable
|
2,441,008 t
|
Gold
|
0.24 g/t
|
592 kg
|
|
Proven & Probable
|
2,441,008 t
|
Silver
|
6.27 g/t
|
15,309 kg
|
|
Total Resource
|
10,351,306 t
|
Copper
|
1.86 %
|
192,689 t
|
|
Total Resource
|
10,351,306 t
|
Gold
|
0.27 g/t
|
2,798 kg
|
|
Total Resource
|
10,351,306 t
|
Silver
|
7.86 g/t
|
81,443 kg
|
Mine Management:
| Job Title | Name | Profile | Ref. Date |
|
.......................
|
.......................
|
|
Nov 14, 2022
|
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Staff:
| Total Workforce | Year |
|
|
2019
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
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