Copper producer First Quantum Minerals (FQM) has announced a strategic investment in Australia-based battery and electrification metals developer Prospect Resources.

Prospect’s principal focus is advancing the Mumbezhi copper project in north-western Zambia, which is about 25 km south-east of FQM’s Trident project, which incorporates the Sentinel and Enterprise mines in Kalumbila.

FQM will invest A$15.2-million for a 15% pro-forma interest in the issued share capital of Prospect Resources and the right to a seat on Prospect’s board.

This investment will drive the advancement of exploration at Mumbezhi to support Zambia’s ambition to produce three-million tonnes a year of copper.

Prospect recently secured two mining licences covering the entire land holding at Mumbezhi of 356 km² for an initial period of 25 years and announced that it had identified 514 600 t of contained copper in a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the project.

Mumbezhi is surrounded by several major copper deposits in north-west Zambia, including First Quantum’s own Sentinel and Kansanshi mines. Mumbezhi benefits from well-established regional transport, power and water infrastructure, and a skilled workforce in North-Western province, to be enhanced by FQM’s participation in a technical working group.

“FQM . . . will expand its exploration programme in Zambia, with an initial focus on the areas around our existing operations, followed by prospective new sites across the country’s mining regions.

“With the investment in Prospect to support the drill programme at Mumbezhi, alongside the delivery of the Kansanshi S3 expansion project later this year, we continue to demonstrate FQM’s ongoing and long-term commitment to Zambia,” FQM Zambia director Anthony Mukutuma said on April 15.

Once opened later this year, the company’s $1.25-billion investment in its S3 expansion project at Kansanshi mine, in Solwezi, is expected to increase ore processing capacity by 25-million tonnes a year, from the current 30-million tonnes a year, and extend the life of the mine by more than 20 years.

Reliable energy supply will also be vital in achieving Zambia’s three-million-tonne target and FQM is working on a series of energy generation projects and grid stabilisation infrastructure upgrades in partnership with State-owned power company Zesco that will add about 500 MW of new renewable generation before the end of the decade. 

Meanwhile, Prospect MD and CEO Sam Hosack commented that bringing FQM into the fold as a strategic cornerstone shareholder and technical partner offered “exceptional value-accretive" opportunities for both parties.

“Mumbezhi is hosted in a similar regional geological setting to FQM’s existing Zambian operations at Sentinel, which is located proximal to the Mumbezhi project. Gaining access to FQM’s breadth of regional expertise to complement our current multi-disciplinary exploration strategy, Prospect is well placed to continue identifying further regional prospects, make targeted new discoveries and add potential new copper tonnage to the existing Mumbezhi MRE at a far greater rate,” he added.