In conversation with
What is significant about this mine? How many mineralised zones are you targeting?
The mine is the biggest employer in the Namibian mining industry.
Its contribution to the Namibian economy in terms of taxes,
social investment, and skills development is substantial. Small
and medium-sized enterprises are benefiting, and the mine is a
significant contributor to the country’s GDP. On a global scale, in
terms of the size of the operation and considering both the current
and forecasted production, Husab can rightly be regarded as one of
the biggest producers in the world. We have five potential mineralised zones on the property, of which
we are currently exploiting two zones: Zone 1 and Zone 2. Both are
mined through two opencast operations very close to each other.
How does a massive mine like Husab keep the wheels turning in
an extremely difficult economic environment?
My motto in mining is efficiency. The only factor you can control,
and manage, is efficiency. It is only after you fail in being efficient
that you can say: well, let’s close the mine. So, in our strategy, there
is a big focus on cost efficiencies.
What is the life of mine?
We are currently planning around a 20-year life of mine and at the
same time, we are also continuing with exploration work on two
Exploration & Prospecting Licences (EPLs) close to our current
licence. Uranium, however, is different from gold, for which there is
a spot price on the international markets. Uranium mines, in many
cases, enter into medium- to long-term contracts on a guaranteed
price, so even if the price fluctuates, it doesn’t really matter.
18 AFRICAN MINING JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2019
In this area, there are six different formations: the Kalahari forms
the overburden, below the Kalahari is the Khan and then Chuos,
followed by the Rossing, Karibib, and the intrusive layers, which
occur a lot deeper. The ore is concentrated around the Rossing
formation. The ore doesn’t seem to occur in any of the formations
below the Rossing formation. Our two open pits have now reached
depths of close to 90m and 140m, respectively.
Which mining methods do you use in the two pits?
Both sites are opencast operations. We use a conventional truck
and shovel method to mine the ore body with hydraulic and electric
shovels. The mining fleet consists of six shovels that include three
CAT 6060 face shovels and three CAT 7495 electric shovels.
In total, we have 26 trucks of which 23 are the Komatsu 960 E,
and three are the NTE 330, which is a Chinese-manufactured
truck. There are 12 drill rigs in the pit, and here we also have
a combination of diesel and electric rigs: there are three CAT
MD6640 electric drill rigs and four CAT MD6290 diesel-driven
drill rigs. In addition, we operate one CAT MD 6650 and four
Atlas Copco Rock L8s. The Rock L8 is mostly for smaller-diameter
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