Mining Operations
The operating facilities include an underground mine and a mineral processing facility which processes ore by comminution and flotation. Other facilities include a fully operational and permitted tailings dam, two head frames and hoists, two ventilation shafts, a trackless decline from surface, surface and underground workshops, and sufficient surface buildings and installations necessary to support current and future operations of the mine.
Since 2003, the mining method employed has progressively changed from sub level caving to long hole open stoping, and improvements in equipment availability, utilization and workforce skill training throughout have been steady and continue. The decline from surface was completed in 2007. This has increased mine operations flexibility by allowing personnel and heavy equipment access to the mine and allows the shaft to be dedicated to ore hoisting.
The saleable product is a copper concentrate containing gold, which is periodically hauled out in trucks to a rail loading station and dispatched to the Port of Bourgas for sea transportation to the Tsumeb smelter.