Surface rights boost Orion copper project
Copper developer Orion Minerals has reached an agreement to access and acquire the surface rights for about 12,000ha of farmland owned by Mora Please in the Northern Cape.
The surface area covers important sites for its Okiep Copper Project, including 5,700ha covering the New Okiep Mining Project area.
In a statement to investors published on Tuesday, Orion said the acquisition cleared the way for drilling to provide additional resource classification, and geotechnical and metallurgical zonation information for the New Okiep Mining Project.
“Surface-right ownership also removes any conflict of interest in future surface use, allowing outstanding environmental authorisation, and water-use licence and rezoning applications to proceed to completion,” Orion said.
Orion wants to see the Okiep Copper Project become its second base-metal production hub in the Northern Cape, alongside its flagship Prieska CopperZinc Mine.
In 2022, the company reached an agreement with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in which the stateowned development finance institution took a 43.75% share in the New Okiep Mining Company. In terms of the deal, the IDC agreed to provide R34.5m to support Okiep’s pre-development costs, including the completion of feasibility studies.
The properties for which Orion will acquire surface rights overlie most of the area covering the Flat Mines Project, where the New Okiep Mining Company holds a mining right and prospecting right applications.
According to Orion CEO Errol Smart, the acquisition of these surface rights was “a very important milestone” that gives them clear access and exclusive use to facilitate the development of the Flat Mines mining project.
“Conflicting land use interests have until now prevented Orion from accessing the surface area to conduct minor but important validation work to finalise the Flat Mines bankable feasibility study.
“While the primary access for the deposits is located on municipal land — where we do have an access agreement — important supporting infrastructure such as roads, power transmission, water supply pipelines and, most importantly, ventilation holings will need to be located on the surface, within the newly acquired area,” Smart said.
Orion said it has now mobilised drill rigs to execute a 3,000m twin hole drilling programme over the Flat Mines East and Flat Mines North deposits to conduct confirmatory geotechnical and metallurgical test work.
The drilling and test work programme it set to be completed in the current quarter.