subscribe Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Subscribe now
A shipment of copper. Picture: REUTERS/ELISEO FERNANDEZ
A shipment of copper. Picture: REUTERS/ELISEO FERNANDEZ

Orion Minerals has requested that its shares be placed in voluntary suspension from the start of trade on Thursday, pending the release of an announcement in relation to a capital raising.

On Wednesday the company requested that its securities be placed in a trading halt.

In a statement on Thursday, the company requested that the voluntary suspension remain in place until the start of trading on July 1 or until the earlier release of the announcement.

Orion is listed on the JSE and Australian Securities Exchange.

On Monday the company reported strong assay results from the confirmation diamond drilling programme in the Flat Mines area at its Okiep Copper Project in the Northern Cape.

Orion wants to see the Okiep project become its second base-metal production hub in the Northern Cape, alongside its flagship Prieska Copper-Zinc Mine.

“The latest results add further momentum to Orion’s development strategy for the Okiep Copper Project (OCP), building on the initial results reported on April 22 and confirming the geology and endowment of the Flat Mines Area,” CEO Errol Smart said on Monday.

Results received to date from the past three of the five planned and completed holes at Flat Mine East have confirmed historical information from drilling by Goldfields of SA in the 1990s. Flat Mine East, which is a virgin discovery that is blind to surface, will form a key part of Orion’s early production plan for the Okiep Copper Project.

“We are pleased to be nearing completion of our bankable feasibility studies so that we can progress to project finance and mine development on our brownfields redevelopment sites, in parallel with ongoing drilling and exploration to expand our resource base on our surrounding highly prospective mineral rights,” Smart said.

In May, the copper
 developer said it had reached the final stages in its Okiep copper project acquisition, which was first announced in 2021.

Through its subsidiary, the New Okiep Mining Company (NOM), it is acquiring prospecting rights and the mining right at Okiep from Southern African Tantalum Mining.

In 2022 the company reached an agreement with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in which the state-owned development finance institution took a 43.75% share in the NOM while Orion kept the balance. In terms of the deal, the IDC agreed to provide R34.5m to support Okiep’s pre-development costs, including the completion of feasibility studies.

mackenziej@arena.africa 

subscribe Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Subscribe now

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.