According to Jubilee Metals, the construction of Project Roan in northern Zambia is virtually complete, with commissioning operations set to begin in December, somewhat ahead of schedule. According to the company, the upgrading effort at the business’s Inyoni PGM facilities in South Africa was also completed.
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The project aims to produce 10,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of copper units through an integrated copper processing facility. According to Jubilee, the company is on pace to begin supplying copper concentrate to the improved Sable Refinery for further processing in the first quarter of 2022.
In addition to Project Roan, Jubilee plans to build two further copper concentrating facilities in Northern Zambia as part of its refining strategy, to deliver more than 25,000tpa by the end of 2023.
In other news, Jubilee has finished a US$21 million construction and commissioning project to enhance the Inyoni PGM operations in South Africa. Inyoni can now process a wide range of third-party PGM feed materials, making it one of the few large-scale PGM factories that can handle mixed ores.
Zambia’s Project Roan PGM objective
Despite the delays to operations throughout the building and completion of the upgrading work, Jubilee maintained its PGM objective for the current financial term at 50,000 ounces.
With the partnership with Cyprus-based Caerus Mineral Resources, tremendous success has been made in recent months at both the South African and Zambian enterprises and beyond the African continent, according to CEO Leon Coetzer.
Caerus Mineral Resources PLC said yesterday that it had extended an option agreement with Jubilee for another 18 months, allowing them to continue assessing the numerous waste heaps on Caerus’ concessions.
According to Coetzer, the Project Roan implementation team has effectively negotiated the multiple hurdles posed by the Covid pandemic’s effects on international logistics, freight transportation, and construction activity.
Following some reprioritization of the commissioning schedule, the state-of-the-art copper concentrator, which will produce both copper oxide and a copper sulphide-rich concentrate, is nearing completion, with staggered commissioning activities set to begin in December 2021, with the first commercial production expected in March 2022.
