Jubilee to process 300 million tons of copper/cobalt tailings in Zambia

During 2020 Jubilee entered into various 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 in Zambia.

With the addition of the refinery at Mopani, announced on 24 August 2021, the Group’s project naming convention was updated as follows:

• Southern Refinery Strategy (14 000 tonnes per annum capacity) which incorporates the Sable Refinery together with Project Roan located in the Ndola area; and
• Northern Refinery Strategy (17 000 tonnes per annum capacity) which incorporates the newly targeted refinery at Mopani, called Leopard together with the copper tailings project in the Luanshya area, called Project Lechwe (previously Elephant 1), as well as the copper and cobalt tailings in the Kitwe area called Project Elephant (previously called Elephant 2). Jubilee has secured additional copper and cobalt tailings at Mufulira which is currently being sampled to confirm the quantity and quality and will form part of the Project Elephant resource.

The Transactions successfully entered into by Jubilee’s 100% subsidiary Braemore Platinum increase Jubilee’s beneficial interests in the Southern Refinery Strategy to 100% and consolidate the Group’s controlling position in the Northern Refinery Strategy.

In addition to an increased interest in the earnings of these projects, Jubilee will have full operational control over both its Northern and Southern Refinery Strategies and will be able to set the sequence and rate of development of the various projects and refineries now under its control.

Project Roan (Southern Refinery Strategy) is rapidly nearing completion targeting to commence commissioning activities from November this year. The transaction relating to Project Roan will increase Jubilee’s beneficial interest from 80% to 100%.

The Project Roan transaction further includes additional rights to an estimated further 6.6 million tonnes of copper tailings near the processing facility (the “Tailings”) while holding the option to convert the lease agreement of the property where the processing facility is located to direct ownership of the property.

The Project Roan transaction is valued up to US$ 15.5 million (£ 11.2 million). As previously announced, Project Roan’s processing facility is well under way which targets a ramp-up over three phases to reach full production to a rate of approximately 10 000 tonnes of equivalent copper units per annum with commissioning activities scheduled to commence in November 2021, targeting full production by end of Q1 2022. Roan commenced with the delivery of early concentrate as part of its phase 1 commissioning to the Sable Refinery in April of this year.

At Project Elephant (Northern Refinery Strategy), which is located in the Kitwe area and targets the production of 10 200 copper units per annum, Jubilee’s subsidiary Braemore will acquire a further 23% beneficial interest in the TD52 tailings dam portion of the overall project, increasing Jubilee’s interest to 80.75% as well as the early settlement of all remaining payments as part of the original joint venture agreement for Project Elephant for a consideration value of US$ 8.25 million (£ 5.9 million) which includes a US$ 1.3 million (£ 0.94 million) interest bearing project loan ceded to Braemore.

TD52 holds the highest contained copper and cobalt within the larger Project Elephant’s 114 million tonnes tailings resource at 0.7% Copper and 0.08% Cobalt. Jubilee’s process development centre has confirmed very promising results from the cobalt recovery strategy which holds the potential to significantly increase the overall project economics.

As a result of the third transaction, Braemore’s interest in the Mufulira Project will increase to 97% beneficial interest in the project for a consideration of US$ 1.02 million (£ 0.74 million).

The Mufulira Project material which is expected to hold similar characteristics to Project Elephant, is conveniently located near the processing facilities targeted for Project Elephant.