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Johannesburg- and London-listed Jubilee Metals has acquired two opencast Zambia copper mining operations.

"The strategic acquisition of the two opencast operations is an example of our ability to leverage our process capability to secure significant near-surface copper resources already in operation," Jubilee CEO Leon Coetzer said of the continually advancing diversified metals producer, chaired by former Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa.

The AltX- and AIM-listed Jubilee, which specialises in the recovery of metal from previously overlooked resources, such as unprocessed historical waste rock, run-of-mine materials and tailings in South Africa and Zambia, is also progressing the roll-out of its integrated copper strategy in Zambia.

"Zambia holds numerous similar resource opportunities which we are actively pursuing," Coetzer highlighted in Monday's stock exchange news service release covered by Mining Weekly.

While commissioning activity has begun at the upgraded and expanded Roan in Zambia, Jubilee has concluded a further offtake agreement for stockpiled low-grade mined material in support of the expanded Roan operations.

Moreover, preprocessing of targeted feed material destined for Roan has begun in preparation of an accelerated commissioning and ramp-up during July.

Meanwhile, the latest acquisition of two operating opencast copper mines supports of the expansion of Jubilee's Sable refinery to target 16 000 t of copper a year.

A combination of $0.25-million in cash and $1.5-million in shares will pay for the first, which is targeting 25 000 t/m of 3% to 4% copper.

The second, which is targeting a ramp-up to 20 000 t/m at the same 3% to 4% grade range, will be settled by $2.1-million worth of shares.

Each mine has a life expectancy of more than eight years.

"It has taken a concerted effort by the team to reach this critical point in the commissioning of the Roan Upgrade. I look forward to the team completing an accelerated commissioning and ramp-up of operations during the coming month," Coetzer outlined.

The Roan upgrade and Sable refinery are described as offering Jubilee processing flexibility that affords the company the opportunity to pursue copper resources that are unlocked by this capability.

The strategic acquisition of the two opencast operations is seem as an exemplification of Jubilee's ability to leverage process capability to secure near-surface copper resources already in operation.

The offering to the resource partners incorporates a sustainable approach to mining and recovery of metals and may drive Jubilee's future copper production beyond the initial 25 000 t/y target.

INTEGRATED COPPER STRATEGY

Jubilee's ability to extract value from materials often regarded by the industry as either waste or too complex to extract economically through the traditional methods is what underpins its integrated copper strategy in Zambia.

The copper resources sought are tailings and partially processed discarded low-grade materials, stockpiled low-grade material, and near surface copper reef accessible through opencast mining.

All three categories are held in vast quantities within Zambia, offering Jubilee the opportunity to upscale its operations through targeted acquisitions of these resources.

The success in securing these targeted resources has afforded Jubilee the opportunity to transition Sable into a refiner for the processing of material from opencast operations, while the upgraded Roan will be processing mainly low-grade material and previously processed materials.

Sable and Roan are destined to operate as independent operations. With Sable at full capacity from opencast operations, Roan will either trade its copper-bearing concentrate on the open market or, subject to capital allocation, expand to incorporate downstream refining of its concentrate. The targeted combined processing capacity of 25 000t/y of copper is achieved by an ex...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses South Africa becoming one of the world’s most compelling short-term investment stories, which is good news for Orion Minerals; Thungela Resources being poised to spend R3.9-billion worth of capital in South Africa going forward; and Richards Bay Minerals looking to on-site renewables, storage & aggregation.

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The University of Fort Hare, where the offspring of mineworkers were the first graduates, has agreed a R12.5-million, initial ten-year academic partnership with a gold mining major AngloGold Ashanti, which no longer mines in this country and is now domiciled in the London.

Fort Hare is the university where the globally illustrious Nelson Mandela began his incompleted studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree.

On Thursday, the historic university announced the establishment of the AngloGold Ashanti chair in dairy science and technology, a project designed to sustainably improve yields for small-scale farmers in one of South Africa's poorest provinces.

Fort Hare's main campus lies adjacent to Alice, a small town in rural setting with a fertile valley.

The new chair will drive research activities that contribute to new knowledge production in dairy science, both nationally and regionally and provide research to support rural small-scale farmers in the Eastern Cape and elsewhere in South Africa over an initial ten-year period.

University of Fort Hare Vice-Chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu described the university's first endowed research chair as ushering in a new dawn for knowledge production to support industry growth, food security, shared prosperity, inclusivity, socio-economic development and upliftment of stakeholders in the dairy sector value chain and rural communities.

"This grant sets us on a new strategic trajectory by helping the establishment of a Faculty of Veterinary Science, and it ensures a lasting legacy for rural development in the Eastern Cape," Buhlungu stated in a media release to Mining Weekly.

The multi-million financial endowment is part of a larger investment in legacy projects in education and agriculture that AngloGold Ashanti will carry out over the next five years to honour its commitment to South Africa, its employees and its communities.

"We remain committed to supporting communities with deep links to the country's mining industry," AngloGold Ashanti CEO Alberto Calderon, a Colombia-born former International Monetary Fund luminary.

"This is why we have deliberately targeted the province from which a significant proportion of our workforce was drawn for many decades," added Calderon.

The poorest of South Africa's nine provinces, the Eastern Cape has a significant agrarian economy with a large population of subsistence farmers.

The research chair position aligns with South Africa's National Development Plan, which emphasises the untapped potential of rural agriculture.

The chair's impact is expected to contribute to several United Nations Millennium Development Goals, including:

• Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger;

• Promoting gender equality and empowering women;

• Reducing child mortality;

• Improving maternal health;

• Ensuring environmental sustainability; and

• Being part of the global partnership for development.

Ionically, Fort Hare was founded in 1916 on the site of an earlier British military stronghold.

UPBEAT NEW INVESTMENT OUTLOOK

The announcement comes shortly after South Africa is showing bright new signs of being more internationally favoured.

Indications of a more positive new outlook on South Africa beginning to arise have been evident this week in international investment events.

For example, speaking to an Australia/South Africa online audience, an upbeat Orion Minerals CEO Errol Smart spoke of "the sun is finally shining on us" when he outlined how South Africa has become one of the world's most upbeat investment stories.

Boksburg-born Smart, who heads a base-metals exploration and mine development company that is primarily listed in Australia with a secondary listing in Johannesburg, drew attention to international investment management company JP Morgan upgrading the investment status of South Africa on rand strengthening and the optimistic Government of National Unity outlook.

Smart also re...

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Green copper and clean smelting and refining is envisaged at Orion Minerals' quickly advancing base metals mines in South Africa's well-endowed Northern Cape province, which has historically 2.5-millon tons of copper until base metal mining ceased there several decades ago.

The fully permitted and already reviving Prieska mine will begin producing its first saleable copper and zinc 12 to 18 months after finalising its total funding requirement, which is estimated at from R3-billionn to R4-billion.

"First focus was to prove the ore. We've done that. Second focus was do the bankable studies; we've done that. Third is build the mines and produce concentrates that are saleable, and then the fourth one will be putting those concentrates in a local smelter or refinery," Orion CEO Errol Smart said during a South Africa-Australia webinar covered by Mining Weekly.

Regarding Orion putting up a smelter, Smart said: We would lean away from smelting. We've done a lot of work on metal vapour refining. We're doing a lot of work on hydrometallurgical leaching.

"We would prefer to go away from energy-intensive smelting. It's difficult to build an environmentally friendly smelter, but it is quite viable to build an environmentally friendly metal vapour refinery or leach plant, and that's what we will probably look at in the future. We've got a whole team working on that. We're looking at the optimised case," he said during question time.

Renewable energy is on the cards: "We're in advanced discussions with a few renewable energy power producers and one is offering 90% certified renewable energy at a cost 20% lower cost than the Eskom supply cost.

"So, essentially, we will be producing certified green copper on our side. That's a huge opportunity and when speaking to the offtakers and debt financiers that green, ESG, credibility is very important," he emphasised.

Power utility Eskom is scheduled to turn on the mine's 15 MW of electricity input next Wednesday.

Trial mining has been under way for some time, with drilling and blasting taking place daily and about 30 000 t of on ore is already on surface.

The existing shaft, which descends to 1 100 m, has multiple underground roadways that reach down to the deepest ore at 1 250 m.

Orion has been conducting bankable studies since 2019 and is putting the finishing touches to updated versions.

Mine chambers at Prieska, which were blasted in the 1970s, have held their ground and no meshing and lacing nor rock anchors are required.

"This ground is standing fantastically well and what we've proven that in the area where we're going to mine, we can put in big machines, we can get economies of scale, and we can get the mining happening," said Smart.

"We can run 4.5 m by 4.5 m development ends, and we can get efficiency in scale of mining.

"We've also proven that we can handle events of nature, a one-in-100-year rainfall event.

"We've put flood control measures in place, and we've shown that there will not be no unplanned flooding.

"The nine billion cubes of water in the mine must be pumped out and the pumps to do this have been put in place," said Smart.

The construction of a water retention dam will be completed in the next few months and the reverse osmosis plant is scheduled to be in place next year as an additional water control measure.

A 15 MVA grid power supply system has been constructed and 4 km dual water and tailings pipeline has been established to the tailings facility.

Besides Prieska, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange- and Australia Stock Exchange-listed Orion is also advancing the Okiep copper project, which has produced nearly two million tons of copper historically under previous Newmont and AngloVaal ownership.

These projects are gaining strong momentum at an ideal time in a district that has produced at an average grade of 1.9 % copper. For many decades, it produced more than 20 000 t of copper a year from ...

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Energy-intensive Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), which consumes an average of 1.8 terawatts of power a year, was able to secure its latest 140 MW wind energy power purchase agreement (PPA) in six months.

When operating at full capacity, RBMs, power consumption across its mining and smelting operations can reach up to 400 MW and this month's quickly concluded wind PPA was, in fact, the second renewable-energy project of this Rio Tinto company.

The first, launched in 2022, was Bolobedu solar PV plant with Voltalia in Limpopo and being looked at now are on-site renewable energy and energy storage options, as well as how it may partner with other companies to halve emissions in 2030 and get to net zero by 2050.

"As a business and as a group, we've come a long way in understanding the markets," RBM GM for growth strategy Bradley Reddy outlined to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

"We do see the markets evolving and with the number of aggregators likely to come up in the next six to 18 months, there'll be further opportunities where there could be shorter offtakes as well," Reddy added.

The aggregation procurement model involves many energy projects selling to one buyer, who in turn sells to many mines, which is being viewed in some circles as a key financial tool to accelerate the energy transition of South Africa's mining industry.

This heavy mineral sands extraction and refining company produces materials used in a wide range of everyday products from paints to smartphones.

Its principal product is titanium dioxide in the form of an 85% pure titanium dioxide slag and it also produces the higher-purity 95% titanium dioxide product rutile as well as pig iron and zircon.

Electricity consumption, besides being one of its largest cost elements, also makes up about 80% of the company's carbon emissions.

Being part of Rio Tinto has enabled RBM to leverage on the areas of expertise across the globe.

Parties to this month's 20-year wind energy agreement include African Clean Energy Developments (ACED), The IDEAS Fund (managed by African Infrastructure Investment Managers), investment holding company Reatile Group, and Rand Merchant Bank. In addition, Energy Infrastructure Management Service (EIMS) Africa is responsible for asset management for the project.

Once constructed, the latest Khangela Emoyeni Wind Farm arrangement involves the production of 460 GWh/y of renewable energy, which, through a wheeling agreement with State power utility Eskom, will help to power RBM's operations.

The project, with an export capacity of 140 MW, is scheduled to reach commercial operation within 28 months.

Combined, the wind and solar projects will supply 42% of RBM's existing energy needs and present opportunities for job creation, skills development, and knowledge transfer within local communities surrounding the project sites during both the construction and operational phases.

Mining Weekly: At the media briefing earlier this month, ACED GM James Cumming said your latest wind farm PPA was completed in what he considered to be record time. How was this concluded in only six months when you've taken more than double that time for other deals that you've worked on?

This was successful by having like-minded partners who share the same values. The level of trust and the frank open discussions allowed us to be able to conclude the PPA negotiations with a much more pragmatic approach. Having our lenders there as well enabled us to knock out a deal within a very short space of time, including getting financial close.

What are some of RBM's most important considerations when going into a PPA, to ensure long-term value?

RBM, as part of Rio Tinto, wanted to ensure that, as an energy-intensive company, which consumes an average of 1.8 terawatts of power per annum, we effectively were able to mitigate, to a large extent, our carbon emission...

UK-based mineral resources investment company Cluff Africa has signed a term sheet with Zimbabwe sovereign wealth fund, Mutapa Investment Fund, to acquire 45% in the Sandawana mining permits. This agreement marks the conclusion of a due diligence process.

Cluff Africa plans to launch a reverse circulation drilling programme immediately following the final agreement with Mutapa, aiming to define an inferred resource.

"We are pleased to have reached this pivotal point, from which we can now begin to develop what we believe to be a world-class, high-grade lithium resource, alongside our partner Mutapa," said Cluff Africa chairperson and CE Algy Cluff.

"Together, we can leverage our complementary strengths, resources and expertise to achieve this shared goal and deliver enhanced value of this particularly exciting asset.

"We look forward to progressing the exploration programme, and unlocking significant value in this highly prospective mining region," he said.

Cluff Africa has a longstanding history in Zimbabwe, having first invested in the country shortly after its independence in 1980. The company discovered and developed the Freda Rebecca gold mine, which continues to produce gold four decades later.

Algy Cluff was invited by Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa in London on May 5 to reinvest in Zimbabwe.

"I would like to extend my thanks to [Mutapa Investment Fund CIO] Mr Simba Chinyemba and his staff for their professional conduct and collaboration in the negotiation process. The efficiency of the process has re-affirmed our belief in the durability and value of this partnership," said Cluff.

He also thanked Ambassador of Zimbabwe to the UK Christian Katsande and his staff, and Ambassador of the UK to Zimbabwe Pete Vowles and his staff for their advice and support.

Mining Weekly editor Martin Creamer discusses Copper 360 being on the road to produce quite a bit of cash by financial year end; why the Reserve Bank concern about the decline of public markets is a welcome development; and the 15-year TotalEnergies and Air Products deal.

ASX-listed Leo Lithium has received conditional approval from the Mali government for the sale of its remaining 40% stake in Mali Lithium BV (MLBV) to China's Ganfeng, a critical step in the company's exit from the Goulamina lithium project.

The Mines Minister has conditionally approved the transaction, requiring the submission of transaction documents and payment of capital gains tax (CGT). Leo has already paid $7.6-million for CGT on a 5% sale finalised on May 6. Any additional CGT on the 40% sale will be paid in due course.

Leo announced last month that it had agreed to sell its remaining interest in MLBV, having failed to reach an agreement with the government over issues relating to the project.

Commenting on the government approval, Leo MD Simon Hay said that it was a positive step in the process for the company's eventual exit from the project.

"While our preferred outcome would have been for Leo to remain involved in Goulamina, we believe in the absence of a viable agreement with the Mali government, this course of action is in the best interest of all stakeholders," he said.

Goulamina is one of the biggest lithium developments globally. Stage 1 spodumene concentrate production is estimated at 506 000 t/y, increasing to a peak of 880 000 t/y in Stage 2.

The project is expected to have a minimum mine life of 23 years, producing 15.6-million tonnes of spodumene concentrate over that period.

The Chinese group will pay Leo $342.7-million for the remaining stake in Goulamina.

With Ganfeng eventually moving to full ownership of MLBV, the joint venture partners decided Ganfeng would assume management responsibilities of the project this month, prior to the completion of the sale. As Ganfeng is still building its operational team, the partners also agreed that Ganfeng would engage Leo under a services agreement to provide management services to the group for up to six months, ending on November 13, at the latest.

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Copper mining and marketing company Copper 360 is on the home straight to produce quite a bit of cash by financial year end.

That was the main takeaway from Mining Weekly's post-results Zoom interview with the head of the only pure copper play listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

"We're cash positive on both plants and building up, within the next three months, to R70-million of monthly revenue, with a profit margin of 50%," Copper 360 CEO Jan Nelson disclosed.

The JSE AltX-listed copper producer is advancing promisingly in South Africa's well-endowed Northern Cape, which from 1935 to 1980 developed into one of the world's major copper producing districts, until a copper price downturn resulted in mining in the district coming to a standstill by 2005. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Interestingly, one of Copper 360's 100%-owned subsidiaries is Okiep Copper Company, which US mining company Newmont established in 1937. Under Newmont, the Okiep Copper Company is said to have paid out about R30-million in dividends every year during the 25 years that it operated in the Northern Cape.

Today, Copper 360 is focused on processing historical mined copper rock dumps through a process of environmental clean-up, and mining surface and shallow copper resources.

It holds more than 19 000 ha with 12 orebodies that include Rietberg, Jubilee, Homeep, Klondike, Wheal Julia North, Whyte's West, Koeëlkop, Hoogkraal and Waaihoek, as well as some 60 exploration prospects.

Current focus is on Tweefontein, Homeep East and the satellite deposits next to them, with easily accessible orebodies enabling ongoing drilling.

As a consequence of the drilling, Rietberg, the first of the dozen resources to yield, turned out to be 220% greater than historical data indicated, resulting in a maiden and indicated resource of 60 800 t of copper already being declared.

The company has three copper processing plants that will produce within the next three months. The rock for these will come from both Reitberg and Jubilee, which provides flexibility.

Guided is positive revenue of R1.2-billion to R1.9-billion in the current financial year, which ends in February next year.

The Rietberg rock will go into the Nama plant and the solvent extraction and electrowinning, or SX/EW, plant, which are both gearing up. Then, in about two months, a third processing plant, the MFP1 plant, will have been constructed.

In terms of mining projects, resource estimates for Jubilee, Homeep East, and Tweefontein have been completed and mining engineers are doing mine optimisation studies.

Mining Weekly: Are the studies being done still pointing to Tweefontein being a possible Chile-type, DRC-type major mine - but with much better grade?

Nelson: We're currently seeing that there's potentially 1.2-billion tons to 1.5-billion tons of copper metal in the ground and we reckon that those mines can produce anywhere between 50 000 t to 100 000 t of copper metal a year, at grades of between 1.5% to 2.5% copper. They are the size of some of the mines that you see in the DRC. The sizes of the orebodies that we are busy delineating are significant. That's why you'll see our growth profile also jumps from 20 000 t next year to 50 000 t the following year. It's because of these orebodies being able to feed into our production profile.

What looks like being the biggest eventual mine in the Copper 360 project pipeline?

Certainly, Tweefontein will be one of the biggest. It was historically the highest grade mine in the area and it certainly looks like it could potentially become the biggest mine in the group. Newmont mined at Tweefontein and it was one of the highest grade mines. At one stage, the grades were almost up to 10% to 15% copper. We're not seeing those grades. We're seeing grades of between 1.5%, 2.5% and 3% copper but over significant widths, and there's still a lot of ore left.

How much co...

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The concern that South Africa's Reserve Bank expressed last week on the state of this country's public markets is seen as a welcome development by AmaranthCX director and public market promoter Paul Miller.

"Public markets serve a social good. They give us price discovery, they provide pension funds with somewhere to put the money.

"If we allow everything to go private, we also allowing everything to go dark. So, we mustn't give up on public markets. They're too important," Miller emphasised in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly on what can be done to grow South Africa's public market investor base and attract more listings to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Pointing out that in every other major financial market, the public market itself is recognised as being a competitive edge for a country, Miller noted: "Countries with good public markets recognise that that is how you compete as an economy against other economies, and that you need to constantly improve the competitiveness of your public market. You need to be looking at the structure, form, substance, regulation of that public market all the time.

"Yet, in South Africa, the evidence is in: we're in decline. The number of public companies or listed companies is declining year after year, and yet we get no policy response at all. You get complete indifference from National Treasury as to the state of our public market."

More than 60% of the gross market capitalisation of the JSE is now made up by secondary listed companies that are served by financial sectors elsewhere in the world.

"Nobody thinks that this is a problem. So, that's the first step we need to get to and that's where the breakthrough has been the fact that the Reserve Bank has finally started publishing some information and announcing in their review of last week that they are doing further research and further work to better understand why our public market has become so shallow.

"To be fair, they tend to concentrate on the debt market rather than the equities market, but they did include the changing structure of our equity markets in their concern. If the JSE can't get it right to get attention on this problem and get any action taken, if National Treasury is entirely passive, if the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) says there's no problem here, at least the Reserve Bank might be able to pay some attention, spend some money, do some research and come up with some solutions for this problem.

"I think the JSE has done a lot. I don't think they've been able to engage in a meaningful way with the policy makers," said Miller.

That 2023 was the worst year on record for new JSE listings and primary capital raisings is reportedly not seen as being a problem by National Treasury and the FSCA.

Mining Weekly: To what extent could a well-supported South Africa's public market system create the inclusive economic growth that South Africa so desperately needs?

Miller: That's the strange thing. To some extent, our public markets in South Africa are way more developed than we are as a country. We've got the 40th largest economy in the world, but we've got the 20th largest public market, so it's a superpower. It's something that we do much better, on a relative basis, than a lot of our competing countries, and that's fantastic. But the idea that we can just neglect it, is astonishing. We've got this the services economy that's built up around the financial services. It employs lots of people. It's growing ahead of the rest of the economy. At its heart, is the public market, and yet, we're allowing it to wither. As we've seen, our logistics infrastructure, our power infrastructure, all these things have been allowed to wither. Yet, the public markets more generally, which are fundamentally a private sector initiative, hasn't been able to address these issues, and that's disappoin...