Jubilee Metals begins processing high-grade copper feed to recoup production

Jubilee Metals Group (LON: JLP) said on Friday it has begun processing high-grade copper feed material at its Roan concentrator facility in Zambia. The plant had been processing low-grade waste material to produce its copper.The milestone follows Jubilee’s recent agreement to secure an initial 200,000 tonnes of material with a copper content of around 1.6%, which is more than double the present copper content (approximately 0.7%) of processed material at Roan.Payment for this copper material will be settled through Jubilee’s Zambian operations as well as $2.70 million worth of new Jubilee ordinary shares priced at 4.20 pence per share. At press time, the stock traded at about 4.00 pence apiece.Recovering productionThe processing of high-grade material, says Jubilee, is part of the group’s plan to recoup some of the lost production from Roan following months of power outages, leading to failed copper production targets at its Zambian operation.The restart follows a new power supply agreement that would allow the diversified metals producer to bring the facility back to operation and to keep its Sable refinery running.The increased feed grades are expected to have a marked increase in the production of copper from Roan, the company said, noting that the facility holds the capacity to process up to 45,000 tonnes per month following the successful ramp-up of operations during November 2024.“Our years of investment to transform the Roan concentrator to a position that allows it to uniquely process both run-of-mine and waste copper material simultaneously, is once again vindicated by the ability to opportunistically secure high-grade adjacent resources,” commented Leon Coetzer, Jubilee’s CEO, in a press release earlier this month.It is expected that about two-thirds (30,000 tonnes per month) of Roan’s current capacity will be allocated to the high-grade material. However, Jubilee has said it will evaluate the potential to operate Roan on this higher-grade material at full capacity for an extended period exceeding three years.Zambia strategyWith its Zambian copper assets, Jubilee is looking to replicate the success of its platinum group metals and chrome business in South Africa, using an in-house processing technology. Its two processing facilities, Sable and Roan, are designed to have a combined capacity of 27,000 tonnes of copper per annum.The Sable refinery not only processes historical waste rock, but also run-of-mine oxide copper ore from the nearby Munkoyo copper mine at a rate of 8,000 tonnes a month. The multi-metal refinery, which it acquired in 2019 from Glencore, was not affected by the power outages.“Our Zambian copper strategy remains robust on the back of a vast resource base of copper material already at surface together with two operating open-pit mining operations and a fully operational processing and refining footprint,” Coetzer said.“We are reviewing several opportunities to liquidate for value certain of the non-core, lower-grade assets,” he added.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com