The Prieska mining hub in the Northern Cape of South Africa is taking shape as Orion Minerals consolidates its ownership of the Jacomynspan Nickel-Copper-PGE Project.
Orion Minerals’ Prieska project is well-advanced, and Jacomynspan will complement existing work. Image credit: Orion Minerals
The announcement by ASX-listed Orion that the company has consolidated ownership of the highly prospective Jacomynspan Nickel-Copper-PGE Project is significant for the further development of the Prieska mining hub. Nickel, copper and zinc prices are expected to soar in the near future as demand picks up. With Jacomynspan in the pocket, Orion will now have access to significant deposits of these minerals. A mining hub in this part of the world is good news for the Northern Cape, which is also a hub for solar and wind energy projects.
Jacomynspan is 65km north of Orion’s flagship Prieska Copper-Zinc Project. As a result of the agreement with current owners, Orion will become 70% owner with Orion’s BEE partners, staff and employee trusts to hold an aggregate 30% interest in compliance with Mining Charter III.
The Jacomynspan Intrusive Complex has important characteristics in common with major global nickel-copper occurrences such as Voisey’s Bay, Kabanga and Nova-Bollinger.
An airborne electromagnetic (EM) and magnetic survey, with follow-up ground truthing, has identified several high-priority targets for follow-up work.
The geophysical targets are centred around a maiden JORC Mineral Resource of 6.8Mt containing 39 480 tonnes of Ni, 22 800 tonnes of Cu and 1 800 tonnes of Co at a 0.4% Ni cut-off with grades of 0.57% Ni, 0.33% Cu and 0.30% Co, drilled between 1971 and 2012.