Trigon Namibia is currently focused on the restart of the Kombat Mine, with the first phase being open pit mining and the second phase being the longer life, higher grade underground operations, starting with the re-opening of the Asis West shaft and thereafter the Asis Far West shaft.
In October 2021, the Kombat Mine officially commenced production from the Central pit of its open pit mine after 14 years of mine closure, and in December 2021, Trigon Namibia commissioned the processing plant, producing its first copper concentrates for shipment in Q1 2022.
During H1 2022 however, the mine faced a number of challenges.
In August 2022, Trigon announced that it had elected to pause open pit mining operations to allow time to focus the mine plan on the higher grade and more consistent ore bodies in the Kavango pit and Kombat trend mineralization to reduce mine operating costs.
In May 2023, Trigon restarted open pit mining production from the Kavango and Kavango North pits, based on the optimized mine plan developed during the pause period.
Concurrently with the restart of the open pit, significant work has been completed towards underground mining production planned to commence early in 2024.
Plan:
Open Pit - 4 years (restarted in 2023), 30ktpm ore production capacity;
Asis West Underground Phase 1 - 10 years (restart in 2024), 30 to 60ktpm ore production capacity;
Asis Far West Underground Phase 2 - ........