Afri-Can Marine Minerals Corp. and Deep South Mining Pty. Ltd. have signed a memorandum of understanding with Mintek of South Africa concerning the development of the Haib copper deposit in Namibia. Mintek is a leading provider of minerals processing and metallurgical engineering products and services, and is a technological leader in the rapidly developing field of bioleaching.
Afri-Can will employ Mintek to provide metallurgical testwork, engineering and other services to Afri-Can for development of the Haib copper deposit, according to the memorandum of understanding, and Mintek will provide Afri-Can with the results of Mintek’s previous work on Haib. Afri-Can and Deep South will grant Mintek an option to subscribe for up to a 20-per-cent equity participation in the Haib deposit, either by cash investment or by providing technology for the exploitation of the deposit. The terms of the said subscription shall be agreed upon by both parties. Afri-Can and Mintek will employ their best endeavours to enter into a definitive option agreement within six months of the date of signature of the memorandum of understanding, enabling the parties to evaluate accurately the option and related payments.
Mintek is a leading South African metallurgical research and development organization with over 500 employees. Founded in 1934, Mintek has been actively researching bioleaching since 1981 and offers a full range of services for the evaluation and commercial implementation of bacterial leaching processes for gold and base metals projects. With established capabilities in the fields of flotation, solvent extraction, electrowinning and metal recovery, Mintek has a number of demonstration and commercial bioleach projects completed or under way in Australia, Asia, China and South America.
Pierre Leveille, president and chief executive officer of Afri-Can, stated: “We are extremely pleased with Mintek’s involvement in the Haib copper project. Their broad strengths in process engineering as well as extraction, refining and manufacturing technologies will definitely enhance the development profile and possibly increase the economic potential of the Haib deposit.”
Haib is a large porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit hosted within quartz-felspar porphyry dating back to the Archean age. The indicated resource in the higher-grade section of the deposit totals 292 million tonnes at 0.46 per cent Cu, which is in excess of 2.9 billion pounds of copper in situ. The deposit is located in the Karas region eight kilometres from the Orange River in the south of Namibia. Afri-Can has an option to acquire a 70-per-cent interest in the exploration licence for the Haib deposit from Deep South.
Deep South is a Namibian empowerment group specializing in the acquisition and development of mineral resource properties. Deep South owns the exploration licence covering the Haib deposit.
