Three drilling programs by First Quantum Minerals (FM-T) at the Lufua copper-cobalt deposit in Katanga, Congo, have been condensed into a resource estimate.
A calculation by Zimbabwe-based consulting firm Digital Mining Services puts Lufua’s measured and indicated resource at 87.6 million tonnes grading 1.17% copper and 0.017% cobalt, based on a cutoff grade of 0.5% copper. The result is based on 86 air core drill holes, 73 reverse-circulation holes, and 14 diamond drill holes.
The resource is divided into an oxide and mixed zone, with 22.5 million tonnes grading 1.24% copper and 0.035% cobalt, and a primary sulphide zone with 65.1 million tonnes grading 1.14% copper and 0.01% cobalt. The oxide-mixed material would probably be recoverable by leaching, but the sulphide material would have to be concentrated.
A second calculation from the same data base, made to delineate the deposit’s most cobalt-rich zones separately, yields an indicated resource of 5.6 million tonnes grading 1.14% copper and 0.17% cobalt. This calculation used a 0.5% copper grade and a 0.025% cobalt grade as a cutoff.
Lufua, discovered in a grass-roots exploration program in 2002, is near the town of Sakania, and is about 2 km from the Zambian border. It is also a 45-km drive, mainly on paved roads, to First Quantum’s Bwana Mkubwa solvent extraction and electrowinning plant near Ndola, Zambia.
Metallurgical testing is underway on Lufua mineralization, with initial acid-soluble copper grades in the oxide and mixed material running about 70% of total copper. Another 15,000 metres of diamond and reverse-circulation drilling should be complete by year-end, with the goal of providing a resource estimate for use in a final feasibility study.
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