19 AUGUST 2016
COMMUNITY NEWS
NAMIB TIMES
9
Defunct lead mine to reopen
The current team at the mine on the outskirts of Swakopmund consists of about 20 personnel. Once mining commences this over 200 people will be employed
Photos by Erwin Leuschner
Erwin Leuschner Just after Namibia's Independence in 1990 the once operational Deblin Mine on the outskirts of Swakopmund was abandoned. What was left behind? An environmental mess. For the past few years Namib Lead & Zinc Mining (Pty) Ltd (“NLZM”), owned by the London-based mining company North River Resources (“NRR”), has cleaned up the site and its surroundings and plans to reopen the underground mine and build a processing plant to produce, zinc, lead and silver in concentrate. The Erongo Region is open the mine. “We which will ultimately Namibia's mining hub, have submitted an ap- yield an estimated 30 with uranium the plication for a mining 709 tonnes lead, 80 640 main mineral wealth. licence and subject to tonnes zinc and a small Nowadays only few the issue of that amount of silver (1.76 people are remember- licence, we will begin million ounces) as a ing old mines like the next phase of pro- b y - p r o d u c t . T h e Brandberg West, Uis ject development,” production rate is anTin or the Deblin Mine Beams continues. To ticipated to be 250 000 located only 20 kilo- support the company tonnes of ore processmetres East of Swa- in realising the goal of ed per annum. kopmund. Now a re- getting the mine up and Currently the staff at opening of the under- running again, specia- the mine site consists ground mine is once list mining and metals of about 20 personnel. fund, Greenstone Re- Once mining commenagain on the cards. Compared to various sources, have come on ces this number will inother mines in Nami- board as cornerstone crease drastically. “We bia, the old Deblin equity investor. anticipate to employ Mine is unique in a Following the issue of over 200 people to n u m b e r o f w a y s . a mining licence, the o p e r a t e t h e m i n e While most mines in ball will start rolling. around the clock,” the country are open “We will then com- Beams said. Once in pit operations, the re- mence with front end operations, the mine named Namib Lead engineering and design will consist of two deand Zinc Mine will be and mine develop- clines and the mine an underground opera- ment,” Beams said. plan anticipates mition. The decline from The ore body is cur- ning down to a depth of surface is about three rently estimated at 470 metres. metres wide, two me- 1.25 million tonnes, tres high and spirals down to a depth of about 200 metres below the surface. “We have carried out extensive exploration drilling to define an economically viable mineral resource to support the reopening of the mine,” said James Beams, Chief Executive Officer of North River Resources (NRR), in an interview Above: The product of the mine will consist of a zinc, lead with namib times. and silver in concentrate. At some places in the decline Since NRR took over the roof sparkles with these metals as NRR Geologist the mine the company Edwin Dewati indicates. Below: During operation some has invested a substan- personnel stayed at the mining site, the old ruins of tial amount to bring the these houses are still standing to this day mine up to scratch in anticipation of recommencing operations, and clean up the surrounding environment. The original mine was operational from the 60's until 1991 when it was abandoned following low commodity prices and labour unrest at the time. Various plant and heavy machinery were left standing on the site together with hazardous materials like cyanide. “We have invested a lot of money to clean up the site and make it safe,” Beams continued saying. Besides an extensive drilling programme NRR has received an Environmental Clearance Certificate from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in respect of its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP) for the project to re-
Since the mine was closed in 1991 an environmental mess was left behind, which was cleaned up since. The picture shows a part of the old tailings which the company is also considering mining