Jubilee Metals updates on its Zambian copper and cobalt operations
The role-out of Jubilee Metals’ copper and cobalt strategy offers the potential of significant continued earnings growth in addition to the achievements of its PGM and chrome operations.
The Company’s Kabwe Project combined with its multi-metal Sable Refinery establishes Jubilee’s fully integrated multi-metal recovery and refining operational footprint in Zambia.
The Sable Refinery, which acts as a central processing facility for third party material in the region, gives access to a current resource comprising of an estimated 6.4 million tonnes of surface waste assets containing zinc, lead and vanadium pentoxide in addition to the approximate 288 million tonnes of copper and cobalt tailings secured in 2020.
As previously announced, during 2020, Jubilee entered into joint venture agreements to secure rights to process over 300 million tonnes of copper and cobalt containing tailings in Zambia. The copper and cobalt tailings are located in three central locations named Project Roan, Project Elephant 1 and Project Elephant 2.
Jubilee targets to construct a processing facility at each of the three locations. The extent of the processing facilities is determined by the refining capacity at its Sable Refinery, currently limited to 14 000 tonnes per annum. Jubilee has a set target to expand its access to refining capacity, to achieve a targeted 25 000 tonnes of copper units per annum.
During H1 2021, the first of the processing facilities entered its construction phase at Project Roan, which targets an annual production rate of 10 000 tonnes of equivalent copper units. The processing facility will be commissioned over three phases to accelerate the delivery of copper units for further refining to Jubilee’s Sable Refinery.
On a slightly revised timetable due to heavy rains in the region early in 2021, Phase 1 was achieved on schedule in April 2021 and delivery of the first copper units to the Sable Refinery took place.
Looking ahead, Phase 2 of Project Roan is targeted for commissioning during Q3 2021 which will further increase the amount and quality of intermediate copper concentrate delivered to the Sable Refinery for processing.
PROJECT ELEPHANT UPDATE
During the period, the completion of the design work for the Company’s second copper processing facility, Project Elephant 1, whereby Jubilee has secured the rights to approximately 150 million tonnes of copper containing surface tailings, progressed and remains on track to enter the execution phase for the project by the end of August 2021.
Project Elephant 1 targets to reach the production of 12 000 copper units per annum in addition to Project Roan by Q2 of 2023.
