Jubilee Metals has commenced the production of intermediate copper concentrate from Project Roan for refining at its Sable Refinery in Zambia.
The production of intermediate copper concentrate follows the completion of the phase 1 of the project.
The company said that construction of second and third phases of Project Roan remains on track.
Project Roan’s second phase is expected to be commissioned in the third quarter of this year, increasing the delivery of intermediate copper concentrate to the Sable Refinery for processing.
Jubilee CEO Leon Coetzer said: “The successful delivery on time of copper concentrate from Project Roan to the fully operational Sable Refinery is the first major step in our commitment to achieve our targeted production of 25 000 tonnes per annum of copper within the next four years, and taking a leading role in the processing of surface tailings in Zambia.
“Project Roan is the first of three copper processing facilities that we target to implement to achieve this goal.
“Completion of Phase 1 on schedule demonstrates our team’s ability to deliver on our goals in a new jurisdiction. It provides me with great confidence that we will see significant success as our copper strategy is further implemented.”
Last year, Jubilee signed joint venture agreements to obtain rights to process over 300 million tonnes of copper and cobalt containing tailings, which are located in three central locations in the country.
The locations are Project Roan, Project Elephant 1 and Project Elephant 2 and the company targets to build a processing facility at each site.
According to Jubilee, the extent of the processing facilities will be based on the refining capacity at its Sable Refinery.
Construction on the first of the processing facilities at Project Roan has commenced, with a target to produce 10 000 tonnes of equivalent copper units annually.
Jubilee said that commissioning of the processing facility will be done in three phases to speed up the delivery of copper units for further refining to Sable Refinery.
