Trigon Metals to resume Kombat copper shipments in August

Trigon Metals Inc, which is targeting to restart its mill next month, expects to resume copper concentrate shipments from its Kombat Mine in Namibia in August.

â€œCurrently in the ramp-up phase, we look to start the mill in late July and ship our first concentrates in August, with October being the first full month of mill operation and concentrate shipments,â€ said President and CEO Jed Richardson.

This comes as the Canadian exploration and mining development company resumed operations at the mine in March after suspending operations last year to reconfigure the mine plan and focus on higher grade and more consistent orebodies drilled in the Kavango pit and Kombat trend mineralization.

Trigon Metals produced its first copper concentrates at the Kombat Mine in January 2022 after 14 years of closure and shipped its first shipments of copper concentrate in March last year.

In 2021, Trigon entered into an agreement with IXM to acquire 100% of the production from the Kombat Mine in exchange for a US$5 million project finance facility for the restart of the mine.

IXM, owned by the listed CMOC group, is a global merchandiser of base and other non-ferrous metals, already active in Namibia.

Operations at the Kombat Mine started in 1962 and produced a total of 12.46 million tonnes (t) of ore with an average copper grading of 2.6%.

It is claimed that the mine has more than US$100 million worth of usable infrastructure in place, including a 1,100-ton per day mill and an 800-meter shaft with two other vertical shafts.

Other infrastructure includes extensive underground workings, a tailings facility, ramp systems, mine buildings, and a concentrator.