Modern Mining January 2023

PRIESKA COPPER-ZINC PROJECT

Orion Minerals prepares for a busy 2023 at its in South Africa’s Northern Cape

ASX- and JSE-listed junior base metals explorer and developer Orion Minerals is gearing up for a busy year at its flagship Prieska copper-zinc project located in South Africa’s mineral-rich Northern Cape. Having agreed funding terms with development agency, the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa and Canadian streaming and royalty financier Triple Flag, for combined pre-devel opment funding of more than R360 million, Orion should soon have enough cash in hand to fund early works at its fully permitted and shovel-ready Prieska project. By Chantelle Kotze .

O rion Minerals MD and CEO Errol Smart, who also heads up the Minerals Council South Africa’s Junior Mining and Exploration Leadership Forum, has been vocal about the challenges faced by South Africa’s junior mining sector when it comes to government policy and implementation, and development capital raising and

Hutchings Shaft headframe at Prieska Mine.

Orion Minerals CEO & MD Errol Smart.

investor mandate obstacles faced by juniors. This has resulted in the country’s juniors having little suc cess in getting their often-promising operations off the starting blocks. With several barriers to entry, raising funding as a junior miner in South Africa is no mean feat and something Smart has been continually working on securing since 2019. Smart says the company tested the market with its 2020 bankable feasibility study (2020 BFS) for a proposed 2.4 million-tonne-per-annum copper and zinc mining operation with a peak funding requirement of R4.8 billion but was met with limited finance success, owing to the project’s high capital requirement and long lead-time. This saw Orion re strategise its development schedule and led the company to investigate a phased implementation of its 2020 BFS instead. “By starting at a reduced-scale first phase and a phased build up towards 2.4 million tonnes per annum means that Prieska will have a shorter lead time to first concentrate production, a smaller upfront funding requirement, and can start generating cash early – a demonstrable achievement that may attract further investment into the project,” says Smart.

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