Wrap Text
Orion expands Okiep Copper Project after securing prospecting rights over highly prospective Nigramoep Mine
Orion Minerals Limited
Incorporated in the Commonwealth of Australia
Australian Company Number 098 939 274
ASX share code: ORN
JSE share code: ORN
ISIN: AU000000ORN1
Orion expands Okiep Copper Project after securing prospecting rights over highly prospective
adjoining Nigramoep Mine
District-wide consolidation gathers pace with the grant of rights to five additional areas in the Okiep Copper
District and rights to additional minerals within the Flat Mines Mining Right also granted
- Existing NCC prospecting right for copper ore and tungsten extended with three adjoining areas added
to the existing Okiep Copper Project in the Northern Cape region of South Africa.
- The new areas include the highly prospective Nigramoep Mine, with historical production of 7Mt @ 2%
Cu.
- Two new prospecting rights covering highly prospective areas in the district have also been granted.
- A third prospecting right application overlying the existing Flat Mines Mining Right, held for copper and
tungsten, has been granted for additional minerals, including gold and silver.
Orion’s Managing Director and CEO, Errol Smart, commented:
“Our vision for the acquisition of mineral rights and the consolidation of the majority of the most prospective areas
of the historic O’okiep Copper Company’s (OCC) mineral holdings has taken a major step forward, with the
recent granting of mineral rights, some of which have been under application for several years.
“When Orion decided to invest in the Okiep Copper District in 2021, we recognised that the key driver for success
in achieving future large-scale production would be reconsolidating the then fragmented mineral rights of the
district. History shows that Newmont, and later Goldfields, had succeeded in producing more than 15,000tpa of
copper for 50 years from 1948 from a cluster of mines operating in the district. Combined production peaked at
over 40,000tpa of copper in 1965. OCC had also conducted intense exploration for many decades and Orion
has benefited from acquiring all the extensive exploration records for our mineral right areas. This database
includes detailed mapping and hundreds of thousands of metres of drilling which Orion has been systematically
digitising to use alongside state-of-the-art, modern airborne exploration conducted by Orion to identify both
drilled/known mineralisation and virgin targets which now form the focus of our exploration and feasibility studies,
“The ability to operate several individual mines within a twenty kilometre radius under a central management
hub brings economies of scale for operations and also lends flexibility with multiple production sites, each
accessible via a well-established network of roads. As brownfields sites – with the benefit of existing primary
infrastructure and services including grid power, water and decline roadways to access the drilled mineralisation
remaining from an era of mining with very low metal prices – the barriers are substantially lowered for re-
development.
“With Bankable Feasibility Studies (BFS) now completed for the establishment of a new mill and tailings site at the
central Flat Mines, we expect the independent expert sign-off of the BFS in the coming months. This is expected
to coincide with the granting of a water use license and environmental approval for a new tailings deposition
facility, designed to international best practice standards, that will be the cornerstone for long-term, sustainable
mining to be re-established in the district. Orion’s vision of re-establishing production to ultimately reach historic
levels on its properties is being reinforced as we ‘mine’ the extensive database acquired and consolidate mineral
rights in the district.”
Orion Minerals Limited (ASX/JSE: ORN) (Orion or Company) is pleased to announce that it has received notice
from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) for the addition of five new "copper ore” and
“tungsten ore” areas to its existing tenement portfolio on the Okiep Copper Project (OCP), located in the
Northern Cape Province of South Africa.
As a result, Orion will now increase its tenement holding west, south and east of the central Southern African
Tantalum Mining (Pty) Ltd (SAFTA) mining right area (red outlined area, Figure 1) by approximately 30,000
hectares (grey and orange shaded areas, Figure 1). Once executed, the grant of these additional areas opens
up a number of exciting opportunities for Orion to explore for potential copper and associated minerals to
supplement the Flat Mines Project, which is currently undergoing an Independent Expert’s Review of the
Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS), while also expanding its control over a number of high-priority targets including
the very important historical Nigramoep Mine.
Figure 1: Grey shaded areas showing 3 new S102 areas; orange shaded areas showing three newly granted prospecting rights, Orion’s OCP
Project.
Grant of Section 102 Mineral Rights
This grant is the significant part of four amendment applications to existing rights acquired (Table 1), adding
surface area and additional minerals to a right in terms of Section 102 (S102) of the Minerals and Petroleum
Development Act, 2002 (MPRDA) of South Africa and gives the exclusive right to prospect for “copper ore” and
“tungsten ore” over the area once the formality of execution is concluded.
The newly granted rights add 15,400 hectares (shaded in grey, Figure 1), to Orion’s granted tenements.
The above-mentioned prospecting right is currently in the process of being ceded from Nababeep Copper
Company (Pty) Ltd (NCC) and registered in the name of Orion’s subsidiary, New Okiep Exploration Company
(Pty) Ltd (NOEC), at the Mineral and Petroleum Titles Registration Office.
Table 1: S102 Applications Status for NC11125PR.
S102 Number Year Submitted S102 Type S102 Details Granted
S102#1 2016/18 Addition of land Portion of the Remainder of Steinkopf 22 Yes
Remainder, Portion 1, Portion 5 and Portion 6 of the
S102#2 2020 Addition of land Farm Nigramoep 136 & portion of the Farm Yes
Grace’s Puts No. 201
S102#3 2021 Addition of land Remainder of Plaatjesfontein No. 135 Yes
Beryllium Ore, Bismuth, Chrome, Cobalt, Gold Ore,
Heavy Minerals, Iron, Lead, Molybdenum,
Addition of Monazite, Nickel, Niobium, Phosphate, Platinum Pending
S102#4 2021 minerals Group Metals, Pyrite, Rare earths, Rutile, Silver,
Sulphur, Sulphur in Pyrite, Tantalum, Tin, Uranium,
Vanadium, Zinc Ore and Zirconium
Grant of Three New Prospecting Right applications
In addition to the S102 rights, three new prospecting rights expanding Orion’s tenement holdings by 14,600
hectares have been granted by the DMRE to Orion’s New Okiep Mining Company (Pty) Ltd) (NOMC) (previously
Orion Exploration No. 6 (Pty) Ltd)(OE6) and SAFTA for a suite of minerals giving Orion the exclusive right to prospect
on those areas for copper ore, tungsten ore, gold ore and silver ore, among other commodities. These
prospecting rights each carry the inherent exclusive right to apply for a mining right (Table 2, shaded in ochre on
Figure 1).
In terms of the Transaction Agreement (refer ASX/JSE release 2 August 2021), the SAFTA right will be ceded to
NOMC subject to MPRDA Section 11 approval being received from the DMRE.
Table 2: Newly Granted Prospecting Rights for the OCP Project.
Right Holder Right Reference Number Grant Date
Southern African Tantalum Mining (Pty) Ltd NC30/5/1/1/2/12850PR 27 June 2023
Orion Exploration No. 6 (Pty) Ltd NC30/5/1/1/2/12852PR 22 August 2023
Orion Exploration No. 6 (Pty) Ltd NC30/5/1/1/2/12854PR 22 August 2023
Nigramoep Mine Prospect
Copper oxide staining of outcropping diorite was first discovered at Nigramoep in the late Nineteenth Century.
Intermittent drilling campaigns from the 1950s through to the 1990s led to the evaluation and development of
the Nigramoep prospect.
A total of 84,000 metres in 154 surface diamond holes and a further 494 underground diamond holes comprising
74,000 metres were drilled during the course of the life of the mine. All drill results have been digitally captured
and stored within Orion’s database and are currently being modelled ahead of confirmation drilling that will be
required to establish mineral resources declared in compliance with JORC standards.
Mine development at Nigramoep commenced in 1990 with a vertical shaft sunk from surface to 868m below
surface and a decline system from surface to 911m below surface. According to historical mine records and
verbal accounts from past mine employees, underground production commenced in 1992 with an average of
approximately 60,000 tonnes per month achieved 1. Production ceased in 2002 and, according to historical
records, as of April 2002, a total of 7Mt of material at an average of 2% Cu was trammed over the ten years of
mining¹. The ore was milled and concentrated on site with the concentrate hauled to a central smelter at
Nababeep.
1 Nigramoep Mine. Stope histories based on tramming figures. Mine Survey Records April 2002.
The prospect is located on the western side of a rift of younger sedimentary rocks of varying thickness that
obscures highly prospective basement sequences into which mineralised mafic rocks were intruded in irregular
pipelike fashion. At Nigramoep, the intrusive displays copper oxide mineralisation on surface where exposed and
is covered in part by the younger Nama sediments. Prospecting rights have now been secured over the area
where these younger sequences obscure the highly prospective basement sequences that host the intrusive
copper mineralisation in the district. While our initial focus will be on the pre-developed and drilled mineralisation
at Nigramoep, Orion will also commence the highly complex detailed analysis of the high resolution SkyTEMTM
survey completed by the Company in 2021. This data is expected to assist in identifying blind intrusive copper
bodies. This area of the Okiep Copper District is very mountainous and inaccessible; only becoming more
accessible after the construction of haulage roads to reach the mine in the 1990’s. The area has therefore had
less intense surface exploration and presents a high priority exploration area with a key structural corridor linking
the Nigramoep and Nababeep Mines (Figure 1).
At Nigramoep the copper mineralisation is very steeply dipping, plunging to the north-east, with the hanging wall
of the mineralisation nearly vertical. In plan view, the mineralised body has an east-northeast trend with
dimensions in the order of 250m by 100m. The full vertical extent of the drilled mineralised body is approximately
800m. The east-northeast dimension increases to a maximum 430m metres of strike and 80m of width on the 628m
Level where a sausage shaped appendix of mineralised diorite, referred to historically as the “Wors Orebody”,
extends to the west-southwest with a vertical extent in the order of 100m (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Nigramoep deposit showing main mineralised zones (red and yellow), historical stoping (blue), main development and historical drill
hole traces. View looking north-west.
Historical stoping was carried out between 463m and 911m below surface. Unmined copper mineralisation
persists up dip by 250m and down-dip by 100m beyond the limits of historical stoping (Figure 2). An unmined en-
echelon zone of copper mineralisation in the footwall of the main body below the 868m Level has been
delineated by historical drilling.
Detailed interpretation of the historical drilling data and mining information is ongoing in preparation for potential
future mineral resource estimation following confirmation of suitable data quality. Initial observation is that the
exploration data for Nigramoep appears to be of a similar high quality to the Flat Mines, where Orion has
succeeded in declaring Mineral Resources of 12Mt @ 1.4% Cu (refer ASX/JSE release 28 August 2023), with the
work being carried out at Nigramoep by the same geological teams, drillers and laboratory over a similar time
period.
Orion’s expertise in underground mine design and planning for the Prieska Copper Zinc Mine, which also has
vertical shafts and inclined roadways to similar depth as Nigramoep Mine, is expected to assist in fast-tracking
the evaluation of Nigramoep.
For and on behalf of the Board.
Errol Smart
Managing Director and CEO
4 September 2023
ENQUIRIES
Investors Media JSE Sponsor
Errol Smart – Managing Director & CEO Nicholas Read Monique Martinez
Denis Waddell – Chairman Read Corporate, Australia Merchantec Capital
T: +61 (0) 3 8080 7170 T: +61 (0) 419 929 046 T: +27 (0) 11 325 6363
E: info@orionminerals.com.au E: nicholas@readcorporate.com.au E: monique.martinez@merchantec.com
Competent Persons Statement
The information in this report that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Mr Paul Matthews
(Pr.Sci.Nat.), a Competent Person who is a member of the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professionals, a
Recognised Professional Organisation (RPO). Mr Matthews is a full-time employee of Orion. Mr Matthews has sufficient
experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being
undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the JORC Code. Mr Matthews consents to the
inclusion in this announcement of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
Disclaimer
This release may include forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements may include, among other things,
statements regarding targets, estimates and assumptions in respect of metal production and prices, operating costs and
results, capital expenditures, mineral reserves and mineral resources and anticipated grades and recovery rates, and are or
may be based on assumptions and estimates related to future technical, economic, market, political, social and other
conditions. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and beliefs concerning future
events. Forward-looking statements inherently involve subjective judgement and analysis and are necessarily subject to risks,
uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Orion. Actual results and developments may vary
materially from those expressed in this release. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance
on such forward-looking statements. Orion makes no undertaking to subsequently update or revise the forward-looking
statements made in this release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release. All information in respect of
Exploration Results and other technical information should be read in conjunction with Competent Person Statements in this
release (where applicable). To the maximum extent permitted by law, Orion and any of its related bodies corporate and
affiliates and their officers, employees, agents, associates and advisers:
• disclaim any obligations or undertaking to release any updates or revisions to the information to reflect any change in
expectations or assumptions;
• do not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the
information in this release, or likelihood of fulfilment of any forward-looking statement or any event or results expressed
or implied in any forward-looking statement; and
• disclaim all responsibility and liability for these forward-looking statements (including, without limitation, liability for
negligence).
Date: 04-09-2023 07:19:00
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