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Following Orion's selection from the very high number of 780 Xplor programme applicants, Lennox spoke of "launching off into 2026 with a renewed vigour around exploration".
"It's a very pleasing outcome," added Lennox about Orion making it through to the final 11 BHP Xplor parties.
Moreover, in the week before last, the Johannesburg – and Sydney-listed Orion also reached a binding agreement with Glencore.
"We've had a very good start to the year, particularly with these two prime announcements. As the market knows, we've been working hard to get the Glencore prepayment agreement in place, and we've done that. There are a few conditions precedent that we're working through, but we're confident we'll have those largely concluded by the end of March," said Lennox, a former leading light of Palabora Mining Company, which operates a copper smelter and copper refinery complex in South Africa's Limpopo province.
Lennox: Correct, I did, and the market announcement Monday last week details the facts and figures of the Glencore agreement, but we had a delay during the course of last year in reaching that agreement, and I'm sure the market understands that there was a lot of discussion in the market about Glencore late last year, even this year, and so we've had to defer that by three months. In our announcement, we said that previously we were looking at Christmas this year, but now we've said we'll be producing concentrate at the end of the first quarter of 2027.
Is this trading agreement largely on Glencore taking bulks, copper and zinc concentrates from Prieska into the market?
It is. We start with the bulk concentrate out of the Uppers, then we move into the copper and zinc concentrate for the Deeps. The Uppers is a smaller, getting-match-fit-ready part of the operations. The real prize is the Deeps. We have a very clear line of sight into the Uppers and into the Deeps and, pleasingly, Glencore will be marketing our concentrate off into the future.
When I chatted to BHP Xplor, they really loved everything about Orion and they said what's very interesting is the possibility of deep copper-centric metal systems emerging in South Africa's Northern Cape.
Yes, that's the simple detail around BHP Xplor. South Africa has, to my knowledge, been explored extensively. The issue with the Northern Cape is undercover exploration, the Kalahari and those type of deposits. Pleasingly, Orion's deposits are at surface. They are not undercover and the large amount of data we have on the Northern Cape, and in particular, our thinking, our IP, around what that region looks like, is, to my mind, what attracted BHP Xplor. They think it's a very prospective region, and Orion showed them a very clear, well-thought-out, professional understanding about how to explore in the Northern Cape.
You've executed the binding prepayment agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of Glencore for a $250-million prepayment facility, and it's linked to all these sales of concentrates. What subsidiary is this and give us a little bit more insight into that.
A lot of it is in confidence, but we now have a relationship with Glencore that provides us with substantial funding, US$250-million, and that comes in two tranches. There's an initial tranche of US$40-million, which allows us to start execution of the Uppers. The second tranche, which is US$210-million, comes in two segments. There's an earlier US$50-million that allows us to address long-lead items for the Deeps and there's a subsequent US$160-million that comes a little later, when we're in the main activities of executing the Deeps and bringing it into production.
So, that's the prepayment, and it is a prepayment. We have to repay that over time, but it's linked also to the offtake ag...

With BHP Xplor, Orion’s looking to longer-term South Africa exploration potential

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