Mining Weekly News

Last month copper mining company Copper 360 surprised on the upside by producing its first copper concentrate from surface material well ahead of schedule. Now, this month, it is doing the same on the underground mining front in that it will be opening its Rietberg underground copper mine three months ahead of schedule.

JSE- and TSX-V-listed Eastern Platinum (Eastplats) has reported net income attributable to shareholders of $13.8-million for the 2023 financial year, compared with a loss of $900 000 for the 2022 financial year, mainly as a result of higher revenue. Revenue increased to a record $106.9-million, compared with revenue of $53.9-million in the prior financial year.

ASX-listed Walkabout Resources says its Lindi Jumbo graphite mine, in Tanzania, was only mildly impacted on by heavy rains and a brief power interruption as a result of cyclone Hidaya, which passed over the country over the weekend. However, the coastal road from the project to the capital Dar es Salaam has suffered damage and, while there are alternative routes to transport graphite to port, this will involve significantly longer trucking distances.

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa denies that the prevailing reprieve from loadshedding has been “stage managed” to improve the prospects of the governing African National Congress ahead of the May 29 poll, attributing it instead to “orchestrated” engineering efforts undertaken by Eskom over the past 18 months. Speaking during a briefing that coincided with the fortieth consecutive day of no loadshedding and amid growing societal cynicism about the timing of such supply stability, the Minister also strenuously denied that the improved performance was because Eskom was relying more heavily on the diesel-fuelled open cycle gas turbines that it owned as well as those operated by independent power producers (IPPs).

ASX- and JSE-listed Orion Minerals has reached the final stages of its acquisition of a controlling interest in the Okiep copper project, located about 570 km north of Cape Town in the Northern Cape. Strategic funding partner the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) has now obtained internal approvals and counter-signed the addenda to the agreements which will see Orion acquire the controlling interest in Okiep.