Zambia-focused copper producer Jubilee Metals Group has reported positive progress for the quarter ended September 30 – the first quarter of its 2026 financial year – successfully improving its copper production, CEO Leon Coetzer says in an operational and projects update for the company’s Zambian operations for the period.

Copper production was 938 t, up 65% from the previous quarter’s 568 t, with no material power outages affecting operations.

Production was made up largely of copper concentrate produced by Roan for refining at Sable, prior to the start of high-grade copper ore deliveries from the Molefe mine to Sable during September.

The Roan concentrator produced 917 t of copper contained in concentrate from third-party acquired ore.

Roan’s performance showed a marked improvement on the back of constant power supply and consistent quality supplied third-party ore.

The Molefe mine restarted delivery of ore to Sable refinery during September following the expansion of Pit 2, reaching 1 122 t delivered for the quarter.

The mine’s production ramped up to reach the targeted 3 500 t of high-grade ore delivered for October and is on target to reach the further step-up to 4 500 t of high-grade ore by the end of November, targeting 8 500 t of high-grade ore delivered for the next quarter, depending on the seasonal rains.

The lower-grade ore (0.7% copper) continues to be stockpiled on site, exceeding two-million tonnes of ore by the end the quarter and growing at a rate of about 70 000 t a month.

Jubilee achieved 215 lost-time-injury-free days in the quarter.

Key growth drivers during the period were Roan reaching stable production and the Molefe mine beginning operations with the delivery of high-grade ore to the Sable refinery.

Revised copper unit production guidance for full-year 2026 is expected to be within the range of 4 500 t to 5 100 t depending on the extent of the impact on production of the rainy season.

“With both Roan and Sable processing plants now fully operational, and the Molefe openpit copper mine expanding successfully, our copper business is stabilising ahead of a new phase of growth. Jubilee still possesses the optionality to increase throughput further through both increased processing of historical tailings material and the introduction of the new Roan front-end although these will only be considered after the rainy season,” Coetzer informs.

“The focus for the remainder of full year 2026 remains firmly on driving our copper strategy via our three-pillar strategy and ensuring stability in the operations in the country including key items such as feed rate, yields and cost control for our operations,” he adds.