Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE)-listed African Copper (ACU) (Pty) entered into P1 billion (US$112.7 million contract with Buildmax Ltd tenable in Botswana, in respect of two ACU’s existing open pit copper mining operations.
What sets this contract which commenced February 14 apart from the business normal practice is that ACU’s subsidiary Messina Copper Botswana (Pty) Ltd has awarded Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed Buildmax’s subsidiary Diesel Power Mining Ltd a new 52 months long-term contract to provide hard-rock open cast mining services to Thakadu Mine and thereafter Mowana Mine, an announcement from London of March 5, 2014, is to that effect.
According to pronouncement, “The contract commenced during February 2014 with a 52 months duration: the first four months will be served at the Thakadu Mine and thereafter the remaining 48 months will be served at the Mowana Mine, located approximately 130 kilometres north-west of Francistown.
“Due to the capital intensive nature of the conventional open pit mining and drilling it will use plant valued at BWP160 million (US$18.0 million). The existing plant fleet of Buildmax will supply the bulk of the equipment and machinery will be sourced from for economies of scale best practices.”
Under the terms of the contract, Diesel Power will deploy a highly qualified management team with extensive experience in Africa, while Buildmax will establish permanent support structures at the Mowana Mine in Botswana.
African Copper is an AIM and Botswana-listed copper producer and exploration company, currently focused on Botswana.
The Company’s flagship project is the copper producing open pit Mowana Mine. African Copper also owns the rights to the adjacent Thakadu-Makala deposit.
Both deposits are situated on the highly prospective Matsitama belt, located close to Botswana’s second largest city, Francistown, in the north-eastern part of the country.
