Orion granted additional prospecting rights for its Okiep Copper Project

Orion Minerals has been granted two additional high-priority prospecting rights for its Okiep Copper Project after a three-year administrative process.

“Orion’s recent purchase of surface rights over some of the area covering these prospecting rights finally resolved the impasse for surface access and environmental approvals,” CEO Errol Smart said in a statement on Thursday.

“This now allows Orion to finally access this highly prospective ground, where we have already used high-quality historical Goldfields and Newmont drill data to estimate and declare Jorc [joint ore reserve committee] compliant Mineral Resources,” he said.

The grant of two prospecting rights over the greater Flat Mines Area surrounding the Flat Mines Mining Right marks another major milestone in progressing the Okiep project.

Orion, which is listed on the JSE and in Australia, wants to see the Okiep project become its second base-metal production hub in the Northern Cape, alongside its flagship Prieska Copper-Zinc Mine.

The newly granted prospecting rights encircle the Flat Mines Mining Right, where Orion is finalising a bankable feasibility study that includes the proposed establishment of a central concentrator plant.

The new prospecting rights contain existing Jorc mineral resources of 1.5-million tonnes at 1.3% Cu with near-term potential for inclusion into the Flat Mines life-of-mine plan.

“Several additional deposits on the prospecting rights that were also drilled by the previous owners require minor in-fill drilling before resource estimation can be completed to Jorc compliance. These prospects can be considered advanced stage projects that have near-term potential to add feed to our planned Flat Mines central concentrator,” said Smart.

“All of the ore from deposits historically mined in the greater Flat Mines area was trucked to a central concentrator located just south of where we intend building our new central concentrator,” he said.

He added that the bankability feasibility study for Flat Mines was nearing completion and included the planned construction of a new modern concentrator plant and tailings storage facility that would replace the historical facilities.

“We are immediately mobilising ground geophysics crews and deploying drilling rigs to test some of the targets that we have not been able to access until now,” he said.

mackenziej@area.africa