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A Johannesburg-listed company, in strategic partnership with a Middle Eastern conglomerate, has secured one of the largest copper waste rock assets on surface in Zambia.

JSE AltX company Jubilee Metals, in partnership with International Resources Holding (IRH) of the United Arab Emirates, is to recover copper from the estimated 350-million tonnes of dumped material, which early preliminary surface sampling results indicate has zones with grades higher than 1.5% copper.

While IRH has undertaken to provide all capital required through a combination of equity and shareholder loans, Jubilee has been appointed to design, implement, and operate the mining and processing solution.

An affiliate of the large Abu Dhabi International Holding Company conglomerate, IRH was earlier this month selected as the preferred strategic equity partner for Zambia's Mopani Copper Mines, owner of the Mufulira slag dump project that has been awarded to Jubilee. It is taking steps to invest in critical metals and develop a new entity that encompasses the entire metals and mining supply chain.

Meanwhile, the technical services team of Jubilee, which is also quoted on the London AIM, has begun resource definition and process technical review with the aim of completing the project implementation detail within the next 60 days.

Processing by Jubilee's newly developed modular copper units aims to produce, from this historical waste rock dump, more than 20 000 t/y of copper at below $4 000/t of copper.

Overall project costs, taking in mining equipment and project infrastructure, are likely to be about $50-million.

Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year, with commissioning 12 months after commencement.

Jubilee has a binding funding term sheet with IRH to form a dedicated special purpose vehicle through which both the acquisition of the copper waste rock asset and implementation of the processing solution will be funded.

The transaction has catapulted the expansion of Jubilee into Zambia and will fast-track the implementation of its modular copper processing units in the country, with the potential to far exceed Jubilee's goal of reaching 25 000 t of copper a year.

The partnership combines Jubilee's technical and operational experience with IRH's strategic Zambia copper focus and financial support, Jubilee CEO Leon Coetzer stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

Its strategic significance is enhanced by the selection of IRH as the preferred strategic equity partner for Zambia's Mopani, Coetzer added.

Jubilee's copper processing modules help to rehabilitate environmentally unfriendly dumps that have accumulated over decades of copper mining in Zambia and this latest waste rock project will provide employment opportunities and strengthen the local economy in Zambia.

MUFULIRA SLAG PROJECT

Jubilee, which has developed metal extraction solutions from waste and overlooked materials, has already secured 300-million tonnes of copper and cobalt tailings in Zambia for upgrading and refining.

Its multi-project portfolio across South Africa and Zambia provides exposure to a commodity basket that includes platinum group metals (PGMs), chrome, copper and cobalt.

It processes up to 44 000 oz/y of PGMs in South Africa and recently countered the drop in the PGMs basket price by expanding chrome operations into higher-margin offtake agreements.

At Mopani's Mufulira, Jubilee is aiming to process about 13-million tonnes of slag, estimated to contain 89 000 t of copper and 44 000 t of cobalt, in addition to current slag arising from the ongoing Mopani facility in Mufulira.

The stated mission of the President of Zambia is to achieve three-million tonnes of copper output a year from Zambia and the project to recover copper from waste is seen as forming part of a greater waste recovery initiative in Zambia to help achieve that mission.

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