Black Mountain

Location:

Black Mountain Mining (BMM) is located at Aggeneys, a mining town in the Northern Cape, South Africa.

Ownership:

Comprises:

BMM comprises two underground shafts – Deeps and Swartberg - and a processing plant.

The Deeps shaft produces copper, lead and zinc, with silver as a by-product. Annual production is of the order of 102Ktpa of zinc-equivalent metal-in-concentrate. Production at Deeps is currently scheduled to cease in around 2020.

The Swartberg shaft produces primarily copper and lead, with silver as a by-product. Annual production is of the order of 13.5Ktpa of metal-in-concentrate.

Plans are well advanced to deepen Swartberg, which will increase production to 1.6Mtpa of copper and lead ore, and 60Ktpa – 70Ktpa of metal-in-concentrate, depending on a favourable economic assessment. Further ramp up is planned for the future, taking copper and lead ore production past the 2Mtpa mark.

Production:

BMM mines zinc, lead, silver and copper, hoisting 1.7Mtpa of ore, and has a production capacity of 90,000Tpa metal-in-concentrate.

Legacy:

BMM has been in operation since 1980 and was acquired from Anglo American by Vedanta Resources in 2010/2011.

Employees:

BMM is one the largest private sector employers in the Northern Cape. BMM directly employs 962 people and indirectly employs a further 842 people (contractors and business partners). In total, BMM provides employment for 1804 people. 80% are from the Northern Cape, of which 60% are from the Namaqua district (Khai-Ma and Nama Khoi municipal areas).

Communities:

BMM has invested in community development through the implementation of infrastructure, poverty reduction and development projects. For the period 2014-2019 BMM spent R20 million on local economic development projects.

Future:

VZI views the region as highly prospective and is undertaking extensive brownfields exploration to identify addition reserve and resources.