Jubilee agrees to tailings venture at Kabwe mine

Jubilee Platinum is taking a step into recovering base metals in Zambia by investing £2.3m in a joint venture with AIM-traded BMR Group to tackle tailings at the old Kabwe mine. Jubilee has two platinum group metals (PGM) and chrome recovery projects in SA and is expanding its interests into zinc, vanadium and lead in Zambia. The 6.4-million-tonne Kabwe tailings will start generating zinc and lead from 2018, diversifying Jubilee’s country and commodity risk profile. The dumps contain about 356,843 tonnes of zinc and 351,386 tonnes of lead. One of the dumps has a "high" lead and zinc content of 17.87%. "The project benefits from existing infrastructure including power, water and building infrastructure, which significantly reduces the required project capital and shortens the implementation time line," said Jubilee CE Leon Coetzer. "This project is meaningful in scope, diversity and potential contribution to the company’s earnings," he said. "In entering into this agreement, we are a...