Canada’s Deep-South Resources can finally resume work at its Haib copper project in Namibia after the Ministry of Mines and Energy renewed the miner’s prospecting license for two years.
The permit award follows a protracted court battle with the government department after it declined to re-issue the project’s license in 2021.
Mines minister Tom Alweendo said at the time that Deep-South had failed to advance to a prefeasibility stage and had not completed the proposed drilling program as planned.
The Vancouver-based miner took the case to Namibia’s High Court, which in March of this year ordered the Ministry to restart Deep-South’s license renewal application procedure.
“This is very good news. The Board of Directors and Management of Deep-South are highly pleased to be back at Haib. With the scarcity of major copper developments on the horizon, Haib’s promise as a significant undeveloped deposit is evident. We have begun preparations to commence the work program and resume the development of the project as soon as possible,” said Deep-South President and Chief Executive Officer Pierre Leveille.
Haib Copper is a large copper-molybdenum deposit situated 40km from the southern boundary of Namibia. The license covers 370 sq. km (37,000 ha).
When the license renewal was denied in June 2021, Deep-South was in the process of completing a 10,000-meter drilling program and conducting further metallurgical test work.
The company was also starting an updated resource estimation for a N$100 million (US$5.4 million) feasibility study and N$353 million (US$19 million) pilot plant.
From April 2017 to April 2021, Deep-South invested more than N$30 million (US$1.6 million) in the Haib project, including an updated preliminary economic assessment.
According to a preliminary technical and economic study of the potential viability, the Haib copper mine has an estimated 24-year life and a production capacity of 35,332 tonnes of copper cathode and 51,080 tonnes of copper sulfate per year.
