New era looms for Weatherly

Loss-making Namibian copper miner Weatherly International (WTI) is set to change its game from a marginal underground producer of a few thousand tonnes a year to a half open-pit extractor of nearly 20,000 tonnes annually generating potential cash flow of $40 million (£25 million) a year. This is the claim made by chief executive officer Rod Webster, an Australian mining veteran, as he anticipates the planned opening next year of the London-based company’s 50 million-tonne Tschudi copper mine, after a hefty increase in losses from $425,000 to $5.7 million in the year to June.