A $565 million funding package brings Cupric Canyon Capital one step closer to turning its Khoemacau project into a major copper and silver mine in northwestern Botswana.<\/p>\n
The private company has been developing the project over the last six years, drilling 285,000 metres, completing permitting and land access agreements, securing required power and water, and acquiring a previously operated copper project and 3 million tonne per year processing plant adjacent to its flagship Zone 5 deposit.<\/p>\n
The recent financing includes a $275 million senior debt facility from Red Kite Mine Finance along with a $265 million silver stream and $25 million subordinated debt facility from RGLD Gold AG, a subsidiary of Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD).<\/p>\n
The money will be spent on building the Khoemacau \u201cstarter project,\u201d which involves underground mining of sulphide ores at Zone 5 at a rate of 3.6 million tonnes per year.<\/p>\n
The project is expected to produce a copper concentrate with an average head grade of 40% and high-grade silver, resulting in annual production of 62,000 tonnes of copper and 1.9 million ounces of silver over a 21-year mine life.<\/p>\n
Construction is forecast to take two years and Cupric Canyon expects to produce its first concentrate in the first half of 2021.<\/p>\n The company discovered Zone5 in 2012 and says it is one of numerous deposits on the 4,040 square kilometer land package. Zone 5 is described by the company as a sedimentary rock-hosted stratiform copper deposit.<\/p>\n Total development capex for the starter project is $397 million.<\/p>\n The mine plan involves three separate but adjacent underground mines developed at Zone 5, each producing 1.2 million tonnes a year on average during the first five years of production. Each of the mines will have its own independent ramp access and operate over a strike length of about 1,000 metres.<\/p>\n The mineralized material will be trucked 35 km to the Boseto processing facility it acquired in 2015.<\/p>\n The concentrate will be shipped to smelters in Africa and around the world.<\/p>\n Longer term, the company plans to expand the operation from 3.6 million tonnes per year to 5.8 million tonnes per year by building a standalone processing plant at Zone 5. The company plans to undertake a feasibility study on the expansion project, which would boost copper production up to 100,000 tonnes per year.<\/p>\n Khoemacau has JORC-compliant proven and probable reserves of 30.4 million tonnes grading 2.03% copper and 19.5 grams silver per tonne.<\/p>\n In addition to Zone five, the company has targets including Zone 5 North and the Zeta northeast deposits.<\/p>\n Khoemacau is in the central Kalahari copper belt, 65 km southwest of Maun, one of the largest towns in Botswana and the gateway to the Okavango Delta.<\/p>\n Cupric Canyon was set up in 2010 in partnership with funds advised by Global Natural Resource Investments (GNRI) and Cupric management to acquire and develop copper assets.<\/p>\n GNRI was formed by a management buyout of the former Barclays Natural Resource Investments private equity business from Barclays Bank Plc in October 2015.<\/p>\n (This article first appeared in The Northern Miner<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n The post Cupric Canyon secures financing for Khoemacau project in Botswana<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A $565m funding package brings Cupric Canyon Capital one step closer to turning its Khoemacau project into a major copper and silver mine in northwestern Botswana.<\/p>\n The post Cupric Canyon secures financing for Khoemacau project in Botswana<\/a> appeared first on 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project is expected to produce a copper concentrate with an average head grade of 40% and high-grade silver, resulting in annual production of 62,000 tonnes of copper and 1.9 million ounces of silver over a 21-year mine life<\/q><\/p>\n