Mutoshi Project

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Mutoshi seals Chemaf’s position as a leading cobalt producer

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The Mutoshi project in Kolwezi, Lualaba, DRC is at the heart of Chemaf's ambitious growth plans.

Chemaf's flagship Mutoshi project will commence with fully mechanised open-pit mines: Mutoshi North and Mutoshi Northeast Deposits. It will have an initial mine life-of-mine of six years, with a processing life of ore mined of up to nine years. Phase 1 will be fully commissioned by the end of 2023. This includes an integrated processing plant that is expected to produce 50,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of London Metal Exchange (LME) Grade A copper cathodes and 16,000 tpa of cobalt contained in cobalt hydroxide over nine-year life of the Mutoshi North and Mutoshi Northeast pit.

Mutoshi Project

Location:

Kolwezi district in the Lualaba province of the DRC

Product:

Copper (Cu) and Cobalt (Co) ore

Life of mine:

Over 25 years

Resources

Resources:

A total of 159.62 million tonnes with TCu 0.84% and TCo 0.25% resources available at Mutoshi North and North East Deposits. Mutoshi Project has a resource of 30 years which will extend the life of Mutoshi Project more than 25 years.

Life of mine:

Mutoshi North and Northeast deposit reserve contains 276,022 tonnes of copper and contains 122,960 tonnes of cobalt; Mutoshi Life of mine extends up to 6 years and processing extends around 9 years based on current reserve; and Chemaf having a Resource to Reserve development plan in place to extend the life of mine to over 25 years.

Mutoshi Plant

Product:

Copper cathode and cobalt hydroxide

Capacity:

50,000 tpa LME Grade A copper cathodes and 16,000 tpa cobalt hydroxide

Chemaf at Mutoshi

Chemaf began by focusing on the Mutoshi North and Northeast Deposit. However, it soon became apparent that potential economic copper and cobalt deposits existed in all directions around the Mutoshi Open Pit.

Since then, the company has completed a preliminary economic assessment, definitive feasibility study and mineral resource estimate for the Mutoshi North and Northeast Deposits. In addition, it has conducted metallurgy, mining study (Open pit optimisation and Life of mine study), process design, and environmental and social impact studies.

The resource development programme is fully operational after a preliminary economic assessment and definitive feasibility study. Chemaf's 25-year lease over PE2604 gives the company the rights to mine and process the material from the concession.

Chemaf has also constructed an automated SX-EW processing plant at Mutoshi that is designed to process a total of 3.9 million tonnes per annum (tpa) of run-of-mine ore. The Mutoshi SX-EW process plant can produce 50,000 tpa of LME Grade A copper and 16,000 tpa of cobalt hydroxide.

Mutoshi North and North-East deposit has an initial mine life of 6 years, and 9 years of scheduled processing. The presence of substantial additional oxide resources will extend the life of the mine by over 25 years.

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