Jubilee Metals Holdings PLC (LON: JLP) Chief Executive Officer Leon Coetzer caught up with Zak Mir for an exclusive interview to discuss what investors can expect in the coming months.
Jubilee is the exclusive partner to Hernic Ferrochrome Proprietary Limited (“Hernic”), the world’s fourth largest integrated ferrochrome producer, recovering the Platinum Group Metals (“PGMs”) from the chrome tailings and platinum rich surface material. This gives Jubilee access to historic tailings and current tailings from Hernic continue to be added at a rate of about 17,000 t/mth. The Company commenced operations of the fully integrated chrome and PGM processing facility with first chrome production during February 2017, and first PGM production during March 2017.
Jubilee commenced production at the Dilokong Chrome Mine (“DCM”) in April 2016 targeting the recovery of coarse chrome from surface tailings. The PGM-bearing tailings in the waste from the chromite recovery section, which upgrades the PGM Tailings to about 6 to 7 g/t PGM, are being stored prior to processing in a new dedicated onsite PGM recovery plant. The DCM fine chrome plant was brought into production during January 2019 and continues to ramp up successfully, reaching its target of 25,000t of chrome processing per month in Q2 2019.
Expanding its surface processing footprint into lead, zinc and vanadium from historical surface deposits, Jubilee established the Kabwe Project in Zambia. The acquisition of the Sable Zinc Kabwe refinery has now been completed, and Jubilee’s engineers have commenced the process to upgrade and integrate the recently acquired refinery to the Kabwe Tailings recovery project. The first phase is targeting the production of vanadium pentoxide and zinc concentrate, while phase two is targeting production of refined zinc and a lead concentrate. Jubilee will bring the copper refining line into operation to capitalise on the regional demand for such refining capacity.
In January 2019, Jubilee acquired the sole rights to the Windsor SA PGM project under a profit share agreement, its third PGM-bearing surface material project. The existing surface material has an estimated grade of 2.7 g/t 4E PGMs before further upgrade through chrome removal (platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold). There is the potential to add 30,000 oz PGMs annually which doubles Jubilee’s existing PGM production. Eland Platinum Holdings commenced commissioning of the recovery plant during June 2019.
In tandem with this, Jubilee acquired the Windsor SA Chrome project in January 2019, and has successfully phased in management and operational control. It has 1.45Mt of chrome and PGM rich material at surface with the potential to add c.12,000tp/m from third party sources of material within close proximity to the plant. The project has an installed processing capacity of 80,000t of chrome material per month.
