Modern Mining August 2024

BASE-METALS

Orion Minerals on track for Prieska production by end 2025 By Nelendhre Moodley A Government of national unity (GNU) bodes well for the country, Errol Smart of dual-listed copper development company, Orion Minerals’ CEO, told attendees during a South Africa-Australia webinar in June. The company is fast tracking the development of its flagship Prieska Copper Zinc Mine and advancing its Okiep Copper project, both located in the Northern Cape.

A ccording to Smart, the recent elections, which culminated in a GNU is a “South African story that is going to get superheated over the next couple of weeks. Coupled with our copper story, which is underpinned by a macro environment where everything is positive and where interest rates are likely to fall and the local currency, the Rand, dramatically strengthen, means we have certainty in our medium-term outlook. For junior miners in South Africa, the sun is finally shining on us.” All of which bodes well for Orion Minerals,

which is on the cusp of taking its flagship Prieska Copper Zinc Mine (PCZM), up the value curve and into construction in the next six to eight months as it targets production in late 2025. The Prieska Project was historically mined by Prieska Copper Mine (PCM), a subsidiary of Anglovaal Group, between the 1970s and 1990s. However, following a dip in demand for copper and zinc, the mine was closed in 1991. Since its acquisition of the Prieska mine in 2017, Orion Minerals has been updating the resource and completed an updated Bankable Feasibility Study

Orion Minerals CEO, Errol Smart.

16  MODERN MINING  www.modernminingmagazine.co.za | AUGUST 2024