Diversified metals producer Jubilee Resources Group has started operations at its Roan upgrade project, in Zambia.

The start of the newly built front-end section of the Roan operation adds additional processing capacity and flexibility to the already operating Roan milling and flotation sections, the company points out in a statement.

Roan’s new front-end capacity has been built adjacent to the already operating milling and flotation circuits, increasing the overall capacity of Roan to a maximum design of 13 000 t/y copper.

The Roan front-end upgrade forms part of Jubilee’s overall operational capacity increase strategy, which includes the Sable refinery upgrade project that is currently under way, targeting a combined processing capacity of 25 000 t/y of copper over the coming 12 months.

In June, Jubilee announced civil and mechanical completion on the upgrade and expansion of Roan, and now, the electrical control system has also been successfully installed and commissioned, allowing for the ramp-up of production to start.

The Jubilee team has begun with the feeding of previously mined material into Roan.

The material is upgraded at source before being transported to Roan where a saleable copper concentrate is produced.

The copper concentrate will initially be refined to copper cathode at Sable until such time that Sable’s capacity is fully committed to the openpit mined material from Munkoyo and Project G, whereafter the Roan concentrate will be traded on the open market.

“We are proud to announce that the Roan front-end module upgrade project in Zambia has commenced production ramp-up of previously mined material, which has been upgraded at source, prior to producing a saleable copper concentrate at Roan.

“It has taken a concerted effort by the team to reach this critical point in the ramp-up of the Roan upgrade project,” CEO Leon Coetzer says.

“I look forward to the team completing an accelerated ramp-up of operations during the coming month. The upgraded Roan, together with our Sable refinery, offers Jubilee tremendous processing flexibility and affords us the unique opportunity to aggressively pursue copper resources that are unlocked by this capability,” he adds.

Jubilee’s avers that its copper strategy is enabled by the company’s proven ability to extract value from materials often regarded by the industry as either waste or too complex to extract economically through the traditional methods.

The upgraded Roan will process predominantly previously mined and processed material.

At completion, an expanded Sable and Roan will operate as independent operations.