Trigon Metals has suspended mining operations at Kombat Mine as it revises its mine plan to reduce operating costs.
The miner said it elected to pause operations at the Kombat Mine in Namibia to optimize its newly increased working capital by reconfiguring the mine plan to focus on higher grade and more consistent orebodies drilled in the Kavango pit and Kombat trend mineralization.
“The central pit mineralization has proven more costly to mine, as the veinlet nature of the mineralization has made grade control difficult and costly to control. Mining in this area will be economic at higher copper prices and the company is also exploring ore sorting techniques to upgrade mill feed and reduce costs from the central pit. The pause will involve the retrenchment of a portion of the mine and mill staff for Trigon and the mine contractor,” the company said.
Trigon expects the revised mining plan to dramatically improve operating costs at the mine.
“The move to take advantage of the higher grade and more consistent Kavango and Kombat trend mineralization should take operating costs down to $2.60-$2.80/lb of copper, from the $3.30-$3.50/lb forecasts from the original mining plan.”
“As anticipated, the mineralization in this area is of higher and more consistent grade. Owing to this new information, a decision has been made to optimize the mine plan. Management will now utilize the operational pause to focus the mine plan to exclusively operate from the Kavango pit and Kombat Trend mineralization, as compared to the original strategy which would have employed Kavango ore to supplement production from the central pit.”
The Canadian exploration and development company said during the production pause, drilling will continue at Kombat Trend to build a new mine plan around the higher grade and more consistent mineralization discovered.
“The plan to commence mining from the open pit and gradually transition to underground ore beginning in 2024 remains unchanged,” the company said.
According to previous figures shared by the miner, the mine employs 220 Namibians both directly and as contractors, with an additional 80 women employed on a part-time rotational basis as part of the Company’s community garden agricultural development project.
Established in 1962, Kombat Mine was forced to shut down in 2008. At the close of 2021, Trigon resumed production at Kombat Mine following 14 years of closure.
