May 2014
MODERN MINING
25
LEAD-ZINC
Top:
A DHEM (downhole
electromagnetic) survey on
the southern orebody was
undertaken last year.
Above:
The plant belonging
to the previous mining
operation (seen here) has
now been removed.
Left:
The Namib project site
with a drill rig belonging to
Shali (North River’s local eq-
uity partner) at work in the
foreground and the tailings
dump in the background.
Last year alone we invested around £2 million
in the project.”
The Namib mine is located 25 km from
Swakopmund and 55 km from the port of
Walvis Bay in an area which already supports
two large-scale uranium mines, Rössing and
Langer Heinrich, as well as a host of develop-
ing uranium projects, including the US$2,5
billion Husab mine, now in the early stages of
construction.
“You couldn’t find a better place in Africa
to develop a mine in terms of skills, engineer-
ing support and infrastructure,” says French.
He adds that the mine site is accessed via a
good 8 km-long gravel road linking with the
main Windhoek-Swakopmund road (part of
the Trans-Kalahari highway) and that a rail line
runs literally through the property. “Water, of
course, is a problem for all mining develop-
ments in the area but we have been assured
that it will not be an impediment to project
development,” says French, who notes that the
main water supply pipeline to Rossing skirts
the Namib property.
Dominic Claridge, who has charge of the
project on a day to day basis, has been with
North River for about 15 months. A mining
engineer (he earned his degree at the University
of Sydney), he has worked in Australia, Africa
and China and, immediately prior to join-
ing North River, was employed by Weatherly
International in Namibia. “While at Weatherly,
one of the projects I was involved with was
Berg Aukas, which is located in the north of
the country and, which – like Namib – was also
mined in the past for lead and zinc,” he says.
Describing the infrastructure at the Namib
site, Claridge says North River has inherited an
underground mine which requires only limited
redevelopment. “The previous owners put in a
150 m deep vertical shaft initially and supple-
mented this in the 1980s with two declines, and
all are still in good shape,” he states. “Three
orebodies were mined – the South, Junction
and North orebodies – with the bulk of the pro-
duction coming from the South and Junction
orebodies, which were developed to the 7.5
and 7 levels respectively – with the levels being
being roughly 30 m apart. Not too much was
done on the North orebody, which was only
developed to 2 level, and this will probably be
the area where we start mining.
“The mining techniques used were very tra-
ditional and fairly labour intensive – for the
most part, shrinking stope or gallery style min-
ing methods were employed. As regards our
own plans, we envisage a fairly simple com-
pressed air mine, using airleg mining methods.
Our approach will be more mechanised than
our predecessors inasmuch as we’re planning
to haul the ore out of the mine using 12 to 15-t
trucks travelling in the existing declines – one
of which will have to be slightly enlarged. The
