Aim- and AltX-listed metals processing company Jubilee’s Zambia-based Sable Refinery has successfully produced export-grade cobalt, enabling a ramp-up of operations.

Sable has also successfully commissioned the direct leaching and refining of copper sulphide material in addition to the recovery and refining of its copper oxide concentrates, thereby making it one of the few cobalt refineries in Zambia able to process and refine cobalt-containing materials at commercial scale.

In doing so, Jubilee was able to bypass the need for traditional power-intensive smelting of copper sulphide concentrates, offering additional growth opportunities from Sable's operational capability from the processing of mixed copper oxide and copper sulphide concentrates.

The cobalt – a by-product to the Southern refining operations – holds the potential to significantly contribute to overall earnings with targeted margins at a capacity expected to exceed 45%.

This refining approach offers further diversity to its operational capability to target mixed copper oxide and copper sulphide concentrates which Jubilee has identified as a significant growth opportunity.

This achievement forms part of the development and design of a larger Northern refining project.

First sale of product is targeted to start by the end of December.

Following its first production of export-quality cobalt carbonate, Sable is now able to start with the commercial production of cobalt targeting an initial production rate of 50 t a month of contained cobalt metal for the next three months, thereafter, stepping up to targeted capacity of 100 t a month.

The cobalt production is expected to make a significant contribution to the earnings potential of the Southern copper refining operations with margins expected to exceed 45% at capacity.

This establishes Sable as one of the few cobalt refineries in Zambia able to process and refine cobalt-containing materials at commercial scale.

Jubilee CEO Leon Coetzer says Jubilee's Project Roan is part of the company’s Southern copper refining strategy (the South), and the predominant supplier of concentrates, produced from perceived waste to Jubilee’s copper and cobalt Sable refinery, which is adjacent to Jubilee's Kabwe tailings resource in Zambia.

“The success and the lessons learned from the South are fundamental to the development and de-risking of Jubilee's Northern refining strategy (the North), where we will implement the same strategy, but at scale,” he says.

Going forward, Jubilee will initially target the production of 50 t of contained cobalt metal – the equivalent of about 220 t of final product, before ramping up to the 1 200 t of contained cobalt metal yearly capacity, which equates to 5 280 t of final product.

With about 264-million tonnes of copper-containing surface tailings secured in the North, Coetzer says the focus will now shift towards integrating the successful technology of the Sable plant at a much larger scale into the North. “With such a large resource secured, the North offers the potential to far exceed the original stated production target of 15 000 t/y of copper.”

A key next decision for the implementation of the North is to secure the capacity of the North refinery, thereby setting in motion the final design capacities for the concentrators that supply the refinery with concentrated copper and concentrate materials.

"With the now proven processes in the South, [Jubilee] expects to receive the final recommendation on capacities from its design teams by mid-January 2023,” he says.

Meanwhile, as per its integrated annual report, Jubilee notes water and power infrastructure challenges in Zambia and the constraints these have had on the newly commissioned Roan concentrator.

The water constraints will be addressed with the upgrading of the water infrastructure starting in the first week of December. This follows the award of a water licence to Roan, enabling it to own and operate a dedicated water supply infrastructure for its operations.

The intervention project is expected to be completed over six days, during which time the water infrastructure will be upgraded and recommissioned. “The power constraints experienced at Roan have been resolved satisfactorily,” Jubilee notes in a statement.