Koryx Copper is redesigning the proposed Haib Copper Project in southern Namibia after new test work showed that the mine could process more ore while sending less waste into the expensive part of the plant.
The company said on 3 June 2026 that it now expects Haib to process about 40 million tonnes of material a year, up from the previous concept of about 35 million tonnes.
An improved mineral resource estimate is driving the increase, along with an optimised mine plan and processing enhancements centred on coarse-particle flotation technology.
The technology can reject up to 25% of run-of-mine feed as coarse tailings before the material goes through conventional flotation.
Koryx is trying to make a low-grade, large-scale copper deposit work better by removing waste earlier. That means the company could reduce the amount of barren rock going through grinding and flotation, improve the copper grade entering the plant and lower energy, water and tailings pressure.
Koryx said the flotation feed grade could rise to between 0.45% and 0.50% copper equivalent during the first 10 years. This matters because Haib is a very large, disseminated porphyry copper deposit, where economics depend heavily on scale, recovery, power use and processing cost.
The project is located in the //Kharas Region, near Namibia’s border with South Africa, and is one of the country’s most advanced undeveloped copper projects.
The redesign is also expected to lower the cut-off grade for sulphide material processed through the main milling and flotation plant from 0.225% copper to about 0.175% copper.
This means material that may previously have been classified as waste could become economic ore, potentially increasing the mineable inventory and extending the project’s productive life.
The company said successful material-sorting tests demonstrated that between 12% and 20% of run-of-mine feed could be rejected while losing only 6% to 12% of the contained copper.
Additional coarse-particle flotation tests showed that a further 25% to 30% of the mill feed could be rejected before flotation with limited copper losses.
Combined test work indicates that approximately 35% of run-of-mine material could be rejected, with only 10% to 20% of the contained copper lost.
The company has now adopted conventional milling and flotation as the base case for all sulphide material.
This means the previous sulphide heap leach option is expected to fall away, simplifying the flow sheet and potentially reducing capital costs.
Oxide and transitional material would still be treated by heap leaching, solvent extraction, and electrowinning to produce a copper cathode.
Under the revised development concept, approximately 92% of the mined material will be processed through the sulphide milling and coarse-gangue rejection circuit.
Although total throughput could increase to about 40 million tonnes annually, only around 28 million tonnes of pre-concentrated material would ultimately report to flotation after waste rejection via coarse-particle flotation.
Koryx believes this will allow more ore to be processed without requiring a proportionate increase in downstream processing infrastructure.
The revised plant configuration incorporates three 14 Mtpa crushing and screening trains, two 18.5 Mtpa milling and coarse-particle flotation circuits, two 14 Mtpa conventional flotation processing trains, and a separate 3 Mtpa oxide and transitional material heap-leach operation.
Koryx president and CEO Heye Daun said the company expects the higher processing grade, increased tonnage and simplified flow sheet to improve project economics in the upcoming pre-feasibility study, which is targeted for release before the end of 2026.
The company is also planning a 200 MVA power supply from the Namibian grid, supported by solar PV and battery storage.
At the same time, water is expected to come from the Orange River, with an off-site storage capacity of 20 million cubic metres a year.
The company said the flotation plant is expected to produce two concentrates. The primary concentrate would contain more than 20% copper, together with approximately 0.8g/t to 1g/t gold.
In comparison, a secondary concentrate is expected to contain between 10% and 15% copper and more than 3% molybdenum. Both concentrates are expected to be marketable to international smelters with payability for copper, gold and molybdenum.
Koryx is also evaluating whether pyrite recovered from flotation tailings can be processed to produce sulphuric acid and ferric sulphate for use in the heap-leach circuit, potentially reducing reagent purchases.
The company said a future expansion option involving water supply from the Neckartal Dam through a dedicated pipeline remains under review.
The company’s permitting process is also advancing. Koryx said 13 specialist environmental studies have been completed, with an environmental clearance application expected around mid-2026 and approval targeted for the first half of 2027.
Knight Piésold’s project notice confirms the environmental clearance process for the proposed Haib copper mine near Noordoewer under application number APP-006117.
Additional metallurgical work on oxide and transitional ore has produced encouraging results. Koryx said that sulphuric acid leaching, bacterial leaching, and chloride leaching each demonstrated the potential to recover between 70% and 75% of copper from test samples over approximately 120 days.
Mineralogical studies also showed that about 65% of the copper in transitional and oxide material occurs as chrysocolla, a mineral generally considered amenable to sulphuric acid heap leaching.
The update follows Koryx’s March 2026 mineral resource update, which described Haib as a large-scale open-pit copper, molybdenum and gold porphyry project with an envisaged 24-year mine life and average production of about 92,000 tonnes of copper a year in clean concentrate.
