Jubilee Metals Group is on an exciting growth path in South Africa and Zambia after completing development work for the design of its copper tailings processing solution, CEO Leon Coetzer said yesterday.
The diversified metals processor in Africa said yesterday the upgrade and commissioning of a brownfield chrome processing facility on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex has been completed and reached targeted output.
The company provided an update of its chrome joint venture expansion project in South Africa and of its Roan Concentrator in Zambia yesterday. Notably, it announced that advanced discussions were under way for its next partnership agreement targeting an additional 600 000 tons a year processing capacity.
The existing long-term chrome processing partnership provides potential for additional chrome processing capacity of 360 000 tons a year, targeting an additional 200 000 tons of chrome concentrate and adding 10 000 platinum group metals (PGM) ounces per annum to Inyoni’s profile.
Jubilee said it was a good time to expand the chrome operations, as chrome prices and strong market support were extending operating margins.
Some 24 500 tons of newly produced chrome product had already been traded and an additional 17 000 tons of metallurgical grade per month of trade was on track.
An additional 60 000 tons of chrome concentrate was expected by the half year ending December 2023, and 4 000 PGM ounces.
“Our chrome production units form a vital part of the South African business’ profitability and cost competitiveness, especially at a time when chrome prices are particularly strong, and this largely offsets the weakness in the PGM basket price,” said Coetzer.
Meanwhile, the roll-out of copper expansion strategy in Zambia was ahead of schedule, with all long lead items secured for the Roan upgrade.
These included delivery of equipment and on-site assembly scheduled to commence in early September 2023 and for commissioning in October 2023.
At completion, Roan will have the capability to process a variety of ROM and waste sources.
Jubilee has secured an additional six-year copper ROM supply at Roan. The ROM supply agreement targets the supply of a minimum of 2% total Cu grades of previously mined material.
The new ROM supply will form the base load material to be processed through the upgraded front-end of Roan and account for about 60% of the capacity at Roan.
The new modular-designed Roan front-end offers the opportunity, similar to the chrome business model, to rapidly deploy satellite modular units to upgrade remote feed sources for further refining.
Results from the Northern refining process trials had exceeded expectations in copper recoveries achieved from historical tailings materials.
The process trials, following three years of research and development, targeted the use of a low capital-intensive solution to produce a high-grade copper concentrate for further refining.
The results motivated a decision to start with a bulk semi-commercial pilot facility at the Luanshya tailings facility, to be completed over the next 12 weeks.
Results from the pilot trials, which target feed batches of about 500 tons at a time, would be used to confirm the design assumptions on scalability of the process flowsheet and to confirm final plant unit sizes.
“The upgrade of our Roan concentrator is a vital link to the processing solution for the much larger Northern Refining solution and sets a new standard in the processing of mixed copper ores in Zambia.
“I am particularly excited by the results from our Northern Refinery trials. The copper recoveries exceeded our expectations and confirmed the potential of the process route that we are developing. This process solution offers tremendous potential to deploy a low-cost efficient copper processing solution for the vast historical tails in Zambia,” said Coetzer.
BUSINESS REPORT