Name of the Project
Haib copper project.

Location
Near Noordover, in the south of Namibia. 

Project Owner/s
Copper exploration and development company Koryx Copper, formerly Deep-South Resources.

Project Description
An updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) has shown the  project to be amenable to bioheap-leaching.

The PEA envisages a life-of-mine of 24 years and a throughput of 20-million tonnes a year, with copper recovery estimated at 80%, and production estimated at 35 332 t/y of copper cathode and 51 081 t/y of copper sulphate.

The mine design is based on openpit methods. As the deposit comprises hard-rock material, the mining operations will involve the drill and blast of all excavated material, which will be segregated by cutoff grade.

The mining fleet will consist of appropriately sized hydraulic excavators and off-highway dump trucks, supported by standard opencut drilling and auxiliary equipment.

There will not be any tailings. The spent heaps will be rehabilitated and left in place. Owing to environmental reasons and water resources, the tailings from the pH adjustment process and the iron removal process will be disposed onto the spent heaps using filtered dry-stacked tailings.

Potential Job Creation
As at June 2025, Koryx included more than 50 staff.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a discount 7.5% rate, of $2.26-billion, and an internal rate of return 52.2%%, with a payback of 2.4 years.

Capital Expenditure
Capital expenditure is estimated at $341-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Koryx has reported that the metallurgical testwork programme for the project has shown encouraging preliminary results.

The company’s metallurgical test programme has made excellent progress since January. The concept of using and enhancing the historical process steps, test parameters and reagent suites has been demonstrated to be very effective, the company said on June 18.

Multiple samples of Haib mineralisation from various locations within the mineralised system and with a range of copper, molybdenum and gold content in each sample were tested. Successful historical test parameters were used as the basis for tests on these new samples with enhancements to improve copper recovery or reduce costs.

Generally, the metallurgical results received were excellent and matched or exceeded the results of the historical programmes completed by Mintek in 1996, the company has said.

The focus of the testwork programme was on investigations of conventional comminution and flotation of higher-grade portions of mineralisation – containing more than 0.275% copper.

All minerals processing tests needed to support a preliminary economic analysis (PEA) for the project have either been completed or will be completed by July.

Supplementary heap leaching testing will only be completed in 2026, but the successful bacterial leach test programme in 2020 can be used to support the PEA if necessary, Koryx has reported.

The high-quality PEA is intended to demonstrate the technoeconomic feasibility of Haib as a conventional, long-life, low-cost, large-scale openpit mine with a simple milling and flotation process base case, producing copper in clean concentrates, with additional copper cathode to be produced from a heap-leach expansion scenario.

Koryx has noted that infill and expansion drilling is ongoing with four rigs on-site and an additional four rigs to mobilise in the third quarter of this year.

The current 55 000 m programme is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026. This aims to increase the size and grade of the deposit, to be reflected in a mineral resource estimate (MRE) update and follow-on technical study update during the first half of 2026 to capture additional project value – improved MRE and flowsheet plus infrastructure optimisation.

Column leach tests of high- and low-grade samples started this month, with the primary objective of demonstrating whether a heap-leach process is viable for treatment of lower-grade mineralisation, which cannot be processed profitably through a conventional milling and flotation circuit.

Bacterial leaching, three different chloride leach processes and a nitrate leach technology are all being tested in these column leach tests.

The company has said that it will be a 6- to 12-month test programme, with results by early 2026 expected to be appropriate to support the next level of technical studies.

Koryx has further reported that a comprehensive environmental- and social-impact assessment (ESIA) with an associated environmental- and social-management plan (ESMP) is being undertaken and developed to International Finance Corporation (IFC) standards.

The ESIA is being prepared to obtain an Environmental Clearance Certificate for the project from Namibian authorities and to supplement a National Instrument 43-101 technical report providing environmental and social compliance components, as well as permitting, for the project.

The full scope of studies includes terrestrial biodiversity, aquatic ecology, hydrology (surface water and groundwater), geochemistry, air and noise, archaeology and socioeconomics.

These studies have all been completed, or are under way, to inform the early design phase of the project. Further focused baseline and impact studies have been scheduled for the second half of this year.

Following the completion of the baseline studies, and subsequent impact assessment in the ESIA, an ESMP will be developed and submitted to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism for review towards the end of this year.

Koryx has said that no fatal flaws have been found in the assessments to date. Comparable environmental permitting processes in Namibia are typically approved within 12 to 18 months.

Additionally, Koryx corporate and site infrastructure now includes a total permanent staff complement of over 50 – including 12 geologists and four engineers, four diamond drill rigs plus various earth-moving vehicles for road and drill pad preparation.

Koryx is also working with a range of “world-class” technical specialists and consultants from especially South Africa, Namibia and Chile.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
METS Engineering Group (updated PEA); Knight Piésold Consulting (scoping studies and assessments); Csiro (conduct bio-assisted heap-leaching column testwork); METS Engineering Group of Australia (testwork supervision); MSA Group (NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate); Knight Piésold Consulting (ESIA) and Ferrodrill Namibia (drilling contract).

Contact Details for Project Information
Koryx Copper (Namibia), tel +264 61 435 8267 or email info@koryxcopper.com.