Osino gets environmental clearance, but will have to relocate graves

The Namibian environment ministry has granted Osino Resources Corp a three-year environmental clearance certificate for the Twin Hills Gold Project.

Osino will, however, have to relocate the historical graves within the Twin Hills project area after the mines and environment ministries recommended that any archaeological materials be reported to the National Heritage Council for review, guidance and management.

The Canadian company says a process is underway to secure the necessary consent to relocate the graves to the satisfaction of Namibia's National Heritage Council.

Now that Osino has received the environmental certificate, it needs to implement a 5% non-carried minority interest for local shareholders and achieve the 20% customary affirmative action quota for management.

The company must also submit a strategy for adherence to the Namibian government's poverty alleviation and socio-economic upliftment strategy of especially disadvantaged population groups. 

Osino still has to apply for site-specific secondary permits, which are operationally specific. These are for road and river relocation/diversion, vegetation removal, water abstraction, wastewater discharge and accessory works permits, amongst others.

These licences could take anything between three and six months.

Once Osino does all this, the Namibian government will issue a mining licence for the Twin Hills gold project.

The chief executive officer for Osino Heye Daun said there are still a few outstanding approvals and consents to be achieved (such as the grave relocation, conclusion of the site-specific secondary permits, and the additional conditions to the mining license explained below). 

"Nevertheless, this milestone takes us one step closer to being fully permitted. This again confirms Namibia as one of the world's top mining jurisdictions, where it is possible to permit and advance a large-scale open-pit gold mining project, according to global best practices, from inception to approval within less than three years. We commend our Namibian regulators and service providers for this remarkable achievement," Daun said. 

A September 2022 pre-feasibility study sets Osino's open pit mine at 13 years with an average annual gold production rate of 169koz per annum at all-in sustaining costs of US$930/oz in the 10 years of operation based on 2.15 Moz in reserves.

To help build awareness and gain exposure with investors, Osino has engaged the Vancouver-based Stockhouse Publishing Ltd. and Hybrid Financial Ltd also to provide investor relations and marketing services.

Osino will pay Stockhouse C$100,000 for a 12-month term, with the first payment of C$25,000 used for the first two months and last month of the term and the subsequent payments made quarterly.

The gold miner will pay Hybrid an initial one-time capital markets advisory services fee of C$90,000 and a monthly fee of C$15,000 over the 12-month term.