February 2017 | Business View Magazine

80 81 started construction and is scheduled to go into produc- tion late next year. Another one of the company’s ac- quired assets was a complex copper concentrate smelting operation in Tsumeb, Na- mibia. “We produce about 45 percent of our revenues from gold,” says Howes. “About 35 percent comes from our copper toll smelting business in Africa, and 20 percent comes from copper and other metals.” The Chelopech mine was first excavated in 1954 and since then has produced approxi- mately 19.7 million metric tons of ore. Over the last decades, it has changed own- ers, and gone in and out of operation several times. Since acquiring it in 2003,DPM has invested close to 90 percent of its profits to transform the mine from an undercapitalized operation into a modern and viable one that meets interna- tional standards for worker safety, environmen- tal protection, and sustainable development. The project site in the town of Krumovgrad in southeastern Bulgaria will be a new open Dundee Precious Metals, Inc. AT A GLANCE Dundee Precious Metals, Inc. WHAT: A Canadian-based, international mining company WHERE: Headquarters in Toronto, Canada WEBSITE: www.dundeeprecious.com pit gold mining operation comprised of a process plant, which will employ conventional crushing, grinding, and flotation processing for gold extraction, and the disposal of thickened tailings, together with mine rock waste, in an in- tegrated mine waste facility (IMWF).“The investment is about $180 million and it will produce gold in the order of about 100,000 ounces a year,” says Howes. The complex copper concentrate smelter in Namibia was constructed in the early 1960s to process concentrate from the Tsumeb copper mine and other mines in the country. It recently underwent a $369 million expansion and today, its copper concentrate comes from both the DPMmine in Chelopech and others’mines in Peru, Chile, and Na- mibia. Its products include partly purified, blistered copper and sulphuric acid.The blister copper is delivered to refineries in Europe and Asia for final processing to copper metal, and the concentrated sulphuric acid is sold to uranium and copper production businesses. In addition to its current operation, Howes says that DPM’s exploration group is always searching for new mining opportunities. “We’re particu- larly active in our Eastern European area where our base of operations is,” says Howes. “We currently have several exploration projects in Serbia and a