Jubilee Metals Group plc (LON:JLP), the AIM and Altx traded metals processing company, has announced the successful completion of the water infrastructure upgrade at its Roan Project and continued advances in the production of cobalt and copper from waste at its Sable Refinery in Zambia.
As announced on 22 November 2022, the Company’s new Roan copper concentrator faced continued water supply interruptions that severely hampered its ability to operate at design throughput levels. The installation of the new dedicated water infrastructure and upgraded power and feed supply infrastructure have been completed successfully with the restart of operations back to nameplate capacity.
Significant progress continues to be made by Jubilee’s technical and operational teams, with the development and ramp-up to commercial level, of new extractive methods for the recovery of copper and cobalt from historical waste, at the Company’s Sable Refinery. These developments provide unique solutions to unlocking the value from vast copper and cobalt containing wastes.
Sable Copper Production Trial
As previously announced, the Company has been focused on a direct leaching approach which by-passes the need for traditional power intensive smelting of copper sulphide concentrates.
These trials have been extremely effective and not only allow for significantly lower operating costs, but also for Sable to produce copper from mixed materials such as copper sulphide and copper oxide ores. Jubilee believes that this new approach to extraction offers significant growth opportunities in the country. As a result, the Company is examining new Run-Of-Mine material agreements with third party producers which offer the potential to further enhance growth for its operations at the Sable Refinery.
Sable Cobalt Production Update
As previously announced, Jubilee is targeting the initial production of 50 tonnes of contained cobalt metal which is the equivalent of approximately 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 management’s expectations.
Solving the technical challenges places the Company in a unique opportunity to pursue tremendous potential growth opportunities in the efficient recovery of cobalt from historical wastes, including also from mixed copper cobalt materials. The Company is currently considering to upscale the production of cobalt through the potential acquisition of refining infrastructures to expand its cobalt footprint in Zambia.
The additional cobalt revenue offers the Company further opportunities to secure metal backed funding in support of the implementation of the Northern Refining Strategy.
Corporate Update
The Company further announces that it has undertaken a restructuring of its Executive Team in-line with its expanding production profile, and in particular ahead of its next phase of growth in Zambia via its Northern Refining Strategy.
As Jubilee continues to rapidly evolve and expand its operational footprint and project portfolio, it is also required to continuously review and where necessary expand its leadership within its Executive Team. This review will inevitably lead to changes in certain leadership roles as the Company upskills to meet the demands of a growing enterprise.
In this regard the Company has expanded its commercial and financial management teams in South Africa and Zambia to both further strengthen its corporate governance as well as dedicate commercial teams to Zambia in support of its project execution team. During this restructure Mr Pedja Kovacevic, currently, Chief Strategy Officer will also be assuming the role of Group Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect. Pedja is a highly experienced CFO with vast experience in the corporate funding and international debt markets. The Company thanks the outgoing CFO, Peet van Coller, and wishes him well in his future endeavours.
Leon Coetzer, Jubilee Metals CEO commented: “I am very pleased to provide an update on our copper and cobalt operations in Zambia in what has been a truly remarkable year for Jubilee.
“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.
“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. This new extraction approach allows for multiple ores to be produced at once, similar to what we have achieved at our Inyoni PGM plant in South Africa. This is a game changer for Jubilee and opens new opportunities beyond our existing operations in Zambia.
“As we conclude 2022, we now focus our attention on unlocking the potential of our Northern Refining Strategy in Zambia.”
Exercise of Warrants
Jubilee also announces that it has received notification from a warrant holder to exercise 5 000 000 existing warrants in the issued share capital of Jubilee (“the Warrant Shares”) at a price of 3.375p (ZAR71.86c) per Warrant Share. The exercise of Warrant Shares amounts, in aggregate, to a cash value of £0.17 million (ZAR3.59 million). This warrant exercise concludes all the warrants held by the warrant holder at 3.375p.
The Warrant Shares are expected to be admitted to trading on AIM and listed on the Altx of the JSE Limited on or about 23 December 2022 and will rank pari passu with the ordinary shares of the Company in issue.
Total voting rights
The Company’s total issued capital, after the issue of the Warrant Shares, will be 2 694 854 150 ordinary shares. As the Company does not hold any shares in Treasury, this figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company following Admission.
