Modern Mining February 2019

COPPER

year. With the ESIA in hand and the Feasibility Study complete, we will then be in a position to submit an application to the authorities for a mining licence.” While everything will be contingent on the

intersected 52 m at 2,0 % Cu, MOD has com- pleted an intensive work programme which has included extensive drilling, metallurgical testwork, a Scoping Study and a Pre-Feasibility Study. The progress has been such that ASX- listed Sandfire Resources – which operates the DeGrussa copper-gold mine in Western Australia – recently approached MOD with a proposal to acquire 100 % of MOD’s shares. In the view of MOD’s board, the proposal significantly undervalues the company’s assets in the Kalahari Copperbelt, which include the T1 underground (Mahumo) project and the A4 dome, an exciting prospect to the west of T3. MOD has, however, said that it is willing to engage with Sandfire should a compelling price be presented capable of being supported by MOD’s board and its shareholders. “With a landholding of 11 679 km 2 , MOD is effectively the custodian of two-thirds of the Kalahari Copperbelt,” Hanna told Modern Mining . “While T3 is our immediate focus, we see other deposits being brought into produc- tion in time, either to act as satellite mines of T3 or as standalone operations.” A key part of the permitting process for T3 is the completion of an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). “We have made great progress on this over the past few months,” said Hanna. “We were able to submit a draft ESIA to the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) in late December and members of the ESIA review panel recently visited the site. We are optimistic that the ESIA will be approved in the second quarter of this

Above: The first phase of the accommodation village in Ghanzi.

Below: Drilling underway at the T3 site.

February 2019  MODERN MINING  23