Terra Metals, Metalex in $100M Zambia deal

U.S.-based critical minerals developer Terra Metals and resource investment firm Metalex Commodities have finalized talks on the creation of what they call a “new copper and cobalt production powerhouse” in Zambia.

The newly established partnership, called Lunda Resources, is using $100 million from Metalex to finish construction and commission a 240-tonne-per-hour copper and cobalt concentrator by September, Terra Metals said Wednesday in a news release.

“This partnership is a leap forward for Zambia’s mining sector and a cornerstone of US-Africa industrial alignment,” Terra Metals chairman Mumena Mushinge, who will also serve as the chair of Lunda Resources, said in the release. 

“We’re building the infrastructure, governance and funding mechanisms to responsibly extract and deliver the minerals that power the global clean energy future.”

Lobito corridor

Lunda aims to process high-grade ores for markets including in the U.S. Concentrate would be exported along the Lobito railway corridor in neighbouring Angola to the Atlantic ports of Benguela and Lobito.

Terra, a Delaware-registered miner holds mining and exploration assets in the Kabompo Dome, located about 129 km west of First Quantum Minerals’ (TSX: FM) Sentinel and Kalumbila mines and 177 km west of Barrick’s (NYSE: B; TSX: ABX) Lumwana mine.

Metalex, also based in the U.S., has trading operations in Nigeria and Zambia, focusing on critical minerals such as lithium, manganese, copper and cobalt.

A signing ceremony on the partnership is expected to be held in the U.S. Embassy in Lusaka, underscoring the strategic alignment with Washington’s priorities on critical mineral security, Terra said.