Otjihase, Matchless full-steam ahead

JOHANNESBURG – Mining activities had resumed at Aim-listed Weatherly International’s Matchless and Otjihase mines in Namibia, after $12 million was spent in 2010 to reopen the mines.

Weatherly placed its Namibian operations on care and maintenance in 2008, owing to low commodity prices at the time.The base-metals miner on Wednesday reported that more than 200 people were working at the sites, where ore was being blasted and stockpiled. The concentrator would be restarted later this month for an initial commissioning run to debug the plant, while normal operations at the concentrator was expected to resume by mid-February.Production would increase steadily and overall output for 2011 was expected to be between 4 500 tonnes and 5 000 tonnes of contained copper.Weatherly restarted the mines with a US$7 million loan facility from Louis Dreyfus Commodities, which had been satisfied by November 2010.The remaining US$5 million required for working capital purposes came from the sale of Weatherly’s Kombat mine, as well as other real estate.The company sold its Kombat mine to Grove Export for N$22,8 million, or about US$3,3 million, in May 2010, and also held a real estate auction in 2009, with the proceeds expected to be paid up to the middle of 2011.Meanwhile, Weatherly had signed a letter of intent with local contractor Breda Mining Contractors (BMC) to maintain and operate the concentrator and other fixed plant on the surface and underground at Otjihase.BMC had already started with the preliminary rehabilitation of the mine equipment and services to the underground working areas in 2010. – miningweekly.com

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