Orion Minerals Ltd (ASX:ORN) (JSE:ORN) has signed an agreement with Byrnecut Offshore envisaging an alliancing agreement for underground mine development and production at the Prieska Copper-Zinc Project in South Africa.
The Byrnecut group employ over 4,000 people, operating a fleet of specialised underground mining equipment world-wide.
The new agreement follows the grant of the Mining Right for the Prieska Copper - Zinc Mine and paves the way for Byrnecut to bring the benefit of its experience to the development and operation of the Prieska Project which is intended as a global-best practice mechanised mining operation.
Key terms of the agreement are that the parties will seek to enter an alliancing agreement related to underground mining at the Prieska Project, whereby Byrnecut:
- undertake to provide underground mine development and mine production services;
- commit to promoting local employment and skills transfer in support of transformation of the industry; and
- commit to collaborating with local black economic empowerment (BEE) enterprises, in line with Orion’s commitment to the progressive transformation and modernisation of the South African mining industry.
Orion managing director and CEO Errol Smart said: “We are delighted to include Byrnecut into the list of partners we will be working with to establish what will be another world-class mine in the Northern Cape.
“Byrnecut has an impressive reputation on the African continent both in terms of their operational proficiency and their approach to skills transfer and harmonious relations with local communities.
“Their involvement in developing Prieska will be invaluable.”
Substantial progress on post-BFS works
Orion’s post-BFS workstreams are currently in progress to prepare the project for execution including third-party peer reviews of the BFS in preparation for funding discussions, the value engineering of components of the BFS, mine-to-market business plan optimisation using the Whittle Enterprise Optimisation process, pilot-scale water treatment field trials of the water accumulated in the underground excavations and the expedition of the various ancillary licences required to operate a mine.