Jubilee Metals said it has produced the first batch of export-quality cobalt from its Project Roan at the Sable refinery in Zambia.
In addition, the metals group has commissioned direct leaching and refining of copper sulphide material without smelting.
Jubilee said its initial target is to produce 50 tonnes of contained cobalt a month, the equivalent of approximately 220 tonnes of final product, before ramping up to 1,200 tonnes of contained metal or 5,280 tonnes of final product a year.
Margins at capacity are expected to exceed 45%, Jubilee said, with first sales scheduled to commence by end-December 2022.
Leon Coetzer, chief executive, added that Project Roan is part of its southern copper refining strategy utilising the company'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 where we will implement the same strategy, but at scale," he added.
"With approximately 264mln tonnes of copper-containing surface tailings secured in the north, the focus is now on integrating [here] the successful technology of the Sable plant at a much larger scale.”
Jubilee said the next decision in the north, where the target is for 15,000tpa of copper, will be to decide on the capacity for the concentrators.
A final decision on this is expected by mid-January 2023.