Koryx Copper CEO and president Heye Daun says the company’s updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) confirms the Haib Copper Project as a large-scale, technically robust development with global competitiveness.
Speaking during a live webinar on Friday, September 5, 2025, Daun explained that Haib would be developed as a primary open-pit mine feeding two processing trains with a combined capacity of about 28 million tonnes per year, or roughly 75,000 tonnes per day.
The PEA projects average annual production of 92,000 tonnes of copper equivalent, with a post-tax net present value of just under US$1.4 billion at a long-term copper price of US$4.30 per pound.
Payback is estimated at 3.9 years, while unit costs sit mid-curve on the global scale.
Initial capital expenditure is placed at just over US$1.5 billion—substantial for Namibia but competitive by international standards, thanks to the country’s existing power, water and port infrastructure.
The study represents a strategic shift away from earlier bio-leach concepts.
“We have replaced that with a conventional crush–mill–flotation circuit, which is proven and lower risk,” Daun said. Heap leaching remains only as an optional module, accounting for about 12 per cent of life-of-mine production.
Daun stressed that the numbers do not yet reflect the latest drilling, which has revealed long mineralised zones and structurally controlled higher-grade domains.
The current life-of-mine processed grade stands at 0.305 per cent copper after dilution and lower cut-off adjustments.
“Even modest increases in grade could significantly strengthen the economics,” he said.
He added that molybdenum and gold, excluded from the present study due to patchy historical assays, will be incorporated into future models following ongoing multi-element sampling and metallurgical work.
Permitting is underway, with the mining licence application filed and environmental studies progressing. The company aims to release an upgraded study by mid-2026, ideally a pre-feasibility study, though Daun cautioned that drilling across rugged terrain may extend the timeline.
Financially, Koryx intends to avoid encumbering the project with early offtake agreements.
“We will look at a mix of equity, debt and potentially streaming arrangements once the pre-feasibility is in hand, likely alongside a strategic partner,” Daun explained.
Chief operating officer Trevor Faber elaborated on the technical underpinnings.
He said Haib’s flowsheet is anchored in the proven crush–grind–flotation process used at primary porphyry operations worldwide.
Still, he was enhanced by new technologies such as ore sorting and coarse particle flotation.
The latter, already deployed in South America, yields a coarser, sand-like tailings stream that can be compacted to build a downstream-constructed tailings dam. Engineered to withstand a one-in-10,000-year storm event, the facility is located 12 kilometres from the Orange River and designed with environmental safety at its core.
On logistics, Trevor said both Lüderitz and Walvis Bay ports remain under evaluation.
Lüderitz, located approximately 500 kilometres from the site, offers a shorter haul compared to Walvis Bay’s 1,200 kilometres. Road upgrades could further reduce the Lüderitz distance, and a split between the two ports may be considered for risk management purposes.
He added that concentrate marketing conditions are particularly favourable at present, with treatment and refining charges in Asia trading in a negative range.
This supports a base case of exporting concentrate, though if the heap-leach option is retained, around 12 per cent of production would be refined locally as 99.99 per cent copper cathode.
Metallurgical test work also points to meaningful molybdenum recovery, with about 70 per cent reporting to the bulk concentrate and 80 per cent of that recovered into a saleable product—an overall recovery of roughly 56 per cent.
Daun closed by highlighting Namibia’s strategic advantage: “This is one of the safest, most mining-friendly jurisdictions in the world. With strong infrastructure, supportive policies and a project of this scale, Haib is positioned to become a technically sound, economically robust, and globally competitive copper mine.”
