Jubilee Metals eyes acquisition to expand cobalt footprint in Zambia

(Alliance News) - Jubilee Metals Group PLC said on Monday it was considering to upscale the production of cobalt through the potential acquisition of refining infrastructures to expand its cobalt footprint in Zambia.

The London-based metal processing company said it will report a new source of revenue in the form of first sales for its cobalt production.

"The additional cobalt revenue offers the company further opportunities to secure metal backed funding in support of the implementation of the Northern Refining Strategy," the group said.

The metal processing firm is targeting the initial production of 50 tonnes of contained cobalt metal, which is the equivalent of about 220 tonnes of final product, before ramping up to the 1,200 tonnes of contained cobalt metal annual capacity, which equates to some 5,280 tonnes of final product.

Cobalt production from waste remains in-line with its expectations, the group said.

The company said it was considering to upscale the production of cobalt through the potential acquisition of refining infrastructures to expand its cobalt footprint in Zambia.

At its Sable Refinery in Zambia, the group also noted the development and ramp-up to commercial level of new extractive methods for the recovery of copper and cobalt from historical waste.

"These developments provide unique solutions to unlocking the value from vast copper and cobalt containing wastes," it said.

Jubilee said the installation of the new dedicated water infrastructure, and upgraded power & feed supply infrastructure had been completed with the restart of operations back to nameplate capacity at its Roan Project.

Last month, the new Roan copper concentrator faced continued water supply interruptions that severely hampered its ability to operate at design throughput levels.

"We have brought the entire Southern Copper Strategy into nameplate production and next quarter will see a new source of revenue for Jubilee in the form of first sales for our cobalt production," Jubilee Chief Executive Leon Coetzer said.

"In Sable, we have now successfully implemented a new way of producing copper in Zambia, which bypasses the need to smelt the material, which is expensive and energy intensive," Coetzer said.

Jubilee shares were up 1.3% at 10.55 pence each in London on Monday morning, and were up 6.8% at ZAR2.35 each in Johannesburg.

By Artwell Dlamini, Alliance News reporter

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