Trigon Metals elects to pause operations at Kombat – Shifts focus to Kavango open pit
Trigon Metals Inc. this week announced revisions to its mine plan based on new information from mining the Kavango open pit. As planned, initial mining has begun in the area of the Kavango pit.
Management has noted marked improvements in grade control and recoveries, and is pausing operations to focus the mine plan on this type of mineralization to reduce mine-wide operating costs at its Kombat Mine, the company said in a statement on its website.
“Trigon Metals has elected to pause operations at the Kombat Mine in Namibia to optimize its newly increased working capital by reconfiguring the mine plan to focus on higher grade and more consistent orebodies drilled in the Kavango pit and Kombat trend mineralization,” the statement said.
According to Trigon, the revised mining plan should dramatically improve operating costs at the mine.
“The move to take advantage of the higher grade and more consistent Kavango and Kombat trend mineralization should take operating costs down to $2.60-$2.80/lb of copper, from the $3.30-$3.50/lb forecasts from the original mining plan,” the statement read.
President and Chief Executive, Jed Richardson, said “With our recent increase in working capital via our streaming deal, we felt it not only prudent in the current lower copper price environment but desirable over the longer term, to make the mine more profitable over its open pit phase. Although we need to delay full commercial production, we believe that our plans will increase operating efficiency and shareholder returns.”
During the production pause, drilling will continue on the Kombat Trend to build a new mine plan around the higher grade and more consistent mineralization discovered in this area, the company added.
“The central pit mineralization has proven more costly to mine, as the veinlet nature of the mineralization has made grade control difficult and costly to control. Mining in this area will be economic at higher copper prices and the company is also exploring ore sorting techniques to upgrade mill feed and reduce costs from the central pit. The pause will involve the retrenchment of a portion of the mine and mill staff for Trigon and the mining contractor,” he stated.
