Jubilee Metals reports period of 'significant' progress

The AIM-traded firm said the construction of project Roan was targeting the production of 10,000 tonnes per annum through the integrated copper processing plant in northern Zambia, and was “fast” nearing completion.

Commissioning activities were targeted to start during December, slightly ahead of the expected timetable, and notwithstanding freight and logistics challenges being experienced.

It said Project Roan remained on track to start delivering copper concentrate to the upgraded Sable Refinery during the first quarter of the 2022 calendar year.

In addition to Roan, Jubilee was also targeting the construction of a further two such copper concentrating facilities as part of its Northern Zambia refining strategy, as it targeted the delivery of more than 25,000 tonnes of copper per annum by the end of 2023.

On the back of positive results from the preliminary work undertaken at the Troulli copper project in Cyprus, coupled with the fact that Caerus Mineral Resources had successfully increased its prospective rights, offering the potential of “greater scale” to the project, Jubilee said it had agreed with Caerus to extend its option agreement for a further 18 months, with both parties working towards a possible joint venture during the first quarter of 2022/

Jubilee said it was planning to upscale its engineering team in Cyprus, meanwhile, as it advanced its test programme at the Troulli Project.

On the platinum group metals front, Jubilee said it had completed the $21m construction and commissioning of the “extensive” upgrade capitalisation programme at its Inyoni operations.

The firm said the upgrade programme had “significantly enhanced” Inyoni's processing capability by providing the flexibility to process a variety of third-party PGM feed materials, making it one of the only large scale PGM plants capable of processing blended ores, the board claimed.

It said the capitalisation programme was undertaken over an 11-month period, and included a chrome recovery circuit together with a new feed blending and classification circuit with a “significantly expanded” PGM recovery circuit, with the capability - based on design - to process up to 75,000 tonnes per month of chrome and PGM-rich material.

Inyoni was now “uniquely positioned” to capitalise on the variety of PGM feed materials offered to the market, the company explained.

Jubilee said its PGM operational target for the current financial period remained at 50,000 PGM ounces, despite interruptions to operations during the construction and commissioning of the upgrade programme.

The company said that meanwhile, it was continuing to review available options to expand its processing footprint into South Africa's Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Complex PGM-bearing region.

“Further significant progress has been made over recent months at both our South African and Zambian operations, as well as outside the African continent, with the collaboration with Cyprus-based Caerus Mineral Resources,” said chief executive officer Leon Coetzer.

“Our implementation team at Project Roan has successfully navigated the various challenges faced due to the impact of the Covid pandemic and its knock-on effect on international logistics and freight movement and construction activities.

“The state-of-the-art copper concentrator which will be able to produce both a copper oxide and a copper sulphide rich concentrate, and following some reprioritisation of the commissioning schedule, is nearing completion with staggered commissioning activities set to commence in December, targeting the first commercial production during March.”

Coetzer said that owning a 100% interest in the Southern Refining Strategy, including the Sable Refinery and Project Roan, would capture all of the earnings potential and “total flexibility”, putting the firm in a “very strong” position going into 2022.

“I am particularly pleased at the completion of the capitalisation and commissioning programme at our PGM operations which has transformed the operation from originally implemented to only process the historical tailings from the then-Hernic Ferrochrome, to now been able to target the processing of a variety of PGM feed materials.

“This follows our success in securing vast quantities of PGM tailing materials through long term offtakes in the Eastern Limb earlier this year, solidifying our presence in the region.

“It gives me confidence that we will secure further long-term feed supplies and operational presence driving our sustained earnings in South Africa.”

At 0950 GMT, shares in Jubilee Metals Group were up 1.09% at 16.63p.