A mining company in Namibia is seeking partners to provide technical and financial assistance to process slag into enriched flue dust for further refining.
Project description: The project entails the extraction of indium, germanium, gallium and lead as enriched flue dust for sale and subsequent hydro metallurgical treatment for metal recovery. These metals would be recovered from slag dumps and the Tsumeb smelter complex. The slag dumps contain in excess of 2.2 million tons of material containing zinc (9.02%), germanium (350ppm), gallium (200ppm), indium (170ppm), lead (2.05%), iron (22.0%), silver (5ppm), silica (26.0%), alumina (4.0%) and lime (9.02%). The slag at Tsumeb accumulated following lead smelting operations from 1963 to 1996. By virtue of closely spaced sampling and surveying, the two slag dumps can be classified as a measured resource and have been accumulated since 1962.
Project initiator: Ongopolo Mining Limited is the holder of the mineral as well as the property rights over the area. The company is seeking partners to provide technical and financial assistance under a joint venture partnership.
Project location: The smelter is situated in Tsumeb, 450 km north of Windhoek.
Business objective: To further process the slag and produce the oxide "fume", which contains zinc, lead, germanium, gallium, and indium that can then be sold for further refining.
Project status: A technical study undertaken by Korea Zinc, one of the world's largest zinc producers and leaders in the treatment of slag, concludes that the slag can be processed to produce oxide fumes in which zinc, lead, germanium, gallium and indium will be concentrated.
Market: Local and regional.
Mining sector overview
Namibia's economy is heavily dependent on the extraction and processing of minerals for export. Mining accounts for 8% of the gross domestic produce, but provides more than 50% of foreign exchange earnings. Rich alluvial diamond deposits make the country a primary source for gem-quality diamonds. Namibia is the fourth-largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa, the world's fifth-largest producer of uranium, and the producer of large quantities of lead, zinc, tin, silver, and tungsten. There is increased marine diamond exploration and mining, which has prompted the government to embark on enacting an appropriate legal framework and also deal with relevant issues that are specific to marine exploration and mining.
Incentives: The government has in place a substantial package of incentives designed specifically to encourage exploration. These cover issues such as taxation, land access and rights of tenure. In addition, an excellent range of high-quality geological information is readily available to exploration companies.
For more information on this project contact the Namibia Investment Center.
