Independent corporate finance and investment advisory firm, specialising in smaller quoted and larger unquoted companies
Weatherly International plc, the AIM listed integrated base metals producer with copper mining and smelting operations in Namibia, is pleased to announce commencement of full production at the Tschudi underground mine on schedule and within budget.
Production is targeted at 300,000 tonnes of ore on an annualised basis for 2008, which would contribute at least an additional 2,500 tonnes of copper to the group.
The Tschudi mine is located 24 kilometres west of the Tsumeb West underground mine and forms part of the Tsumeb operation. Around $3 million was invested in bringing the group’s first entirely new mine on line. Modern long hole stoping mining methods will be used, with the ore being processed at the Tsumeb concentrator and then smelted at the nearby Tsumeb smelter.
The underground mine is exploiting just a small part of the large Tschudi orebody, with current defined underground reserves of 1 million tonnes at 1.5% copper and 15 grams per tonne silver. The whole Tschudi resource base is 43 million tonnes, grading at 0.8% copper and 10 grams per tonne silver. Weatherly is examining the possibility of exploiting the deposit through a large open pit, with a drilling campaign currently underway and anticipate completing a Bankable Feasibility Study during the third quarter of 2008.
Commenting on the announcement, Rod Webster, CEO of Weatherly International said “This is an important milestone for Weatherly. The commencement of production on schedule and within budget demonstrates Weatherly’s ability to successfully deliver new projects. We are also excited about the potential to develop Tschudi into a much larger mine with the addition of an open pit. We anticipate completing the open pit feasibility study during the third quarter of 2008.
Our next underground mine Kombat West is progressing well and is on track to commence production in November 2007. I believe we are well positioned to meet our stated target rate of 20,000 tonnes of copper (annualised) as forecast.”