Sam Jonah’s Copper Resources options Haib project

Vancouver — AIM-listed Copper Resources (CRC-L) has secured an option to earn up to a 90% interest in the Haib copper project in southern Namibia, near the border with South Africa.

The low-grade deposit has been tested by many companies, including several majors, since the early 1960s. Previous work includes an estimated 52,000 metres of drilling and various scoping and feasibility studies.

The most recent operator, Great Fitzroy Mines of Australia, advanced Haib to the feasibility stage in the mid-1990s, with a view to producing cathode copper using a roast-leach, electrowinning process plant. In 1996, Behre Dolbear estimated that the project hosted a resource of 244 million tonnes grading 0.37% copper, using a cutoff grade of 0.3% copper.

Copper Resources can earn 60% of the deposit and surrounding exploration ground from the previous owners by spending an initial US$1.2 million on exploration and issuing 120,000 shares.

The company can boost its interest to 70% by spending another US$1 million on exploration, and then up to 90% if the vendors elect not to contribute to ongoing development costs.

Sir Sam Jonah, chairman of Copper Resources, describes Haib as “a low-cost entry opportunity” for the company to acquire its second copper project. The next phase of work will focus on evaluating processing options that will allow for the economic recovery of copper. Once this work is completed, the company will make a decision whether or not the project is economically viable.

Copper Resources is the holding company of a group of exploration, development, and operating companies. In addition to Haib, it holds a 92.5% interest in the Hinoba-an porphyry copper project on Negros Island, in the Philippines.

Hinoba-an has been tested by about 48,000 metres of diamond drilling and 11,000 metres of reverse-circulation drilling over the years.

Previous owners spent more than $14.7 million on exploration and development, focused on two main deposits known as Don Jose and A1. A 1998 scoping study estimated a combined resource of 254 million tonnes at 0.46% copper using a 0.3% copper cutoff grade.

The study concluded that the deposits could be mined by open-pit methods and processed by conventional flotation to produce about 56,000 tonnes of copper annually with an average cash cost (including smelting, refining and by-product credits) of under US50 per lb. of copper.

More drilling and a feasibility study are planned.

Copper Resources also owns a copper property in Colorado that was historically mined as an underground operation. A drilling program will test the property early next year.