Australian company Cape Lambert has ventured into a joint venture with Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Paragon Mining to exploit the country’s cobalt and copper.
The JV is to develop the Kipushi cobalt-copper tailings project, the Kasombo copper-cobalt project and operate the Kipushi processing plant.
In addition, operate the fully constructed and commissioned Kipushi processing plant to process the Kipushi tailings and treat additional hard rock cobalt and copper material.
Commissioned last year, the processing plant which was has a one-million-tonne-a-year flotation plant designed to produce 4 000 t/y of cobalt, 10 000 t/y of copper and 2 000 t/y of zinc in concentrate from the tailings material.
“Cape Lambert has built a successful record of identifying commodities and projects at the right time. By applying our technical and marketing support, we can add immediate value to these projects and return significant value to the company, its shareholders and all stakeholders,” said Cape Lambert, Executive Chairperson Tony Sage.
Lambert is optimistic that cobalt, as a commodity, has an extremely positive future.
“We believe we are well placed to benefit from significant demand and price increases in this commodity sector.”
The two companies will each hold a 50% interest in the JV, and will aim to start mining activities at Kipushi within the next six months, and to immediately start exploration activities at Kasombo.
According to the company a feasibility study for Kasombo was scheduled within the next 18 months, and mining activities within the next 24 months. The partners will also work to identify and secure other copper, tin, zinc and cobalt projects in the DRC and Zambia.
At Kipushi, Cape Lambert will be responsible for providing all the necessary technical resources to enable exploration and mining, and will fund 100% of the working capital and capital costs to start mining, while also sole funding any requirements to upgrade the processing plant.
While at Kasombo, Cape Lambert will be responsible for sole funding the costs of exploration and feasibility studies to start mining and, if necessary, upgrade the Kipushi processing plant to process ore from Kasombo.