Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper miner Tiger Resources has increased the ore reserve estimate at its Kipoi Stage 2 openpit project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, by 112%.
The Stage 2 openpit area was the principal deposit for the Kipoi copper project.
The ASX-listed miner reported on Wednesday that the project was now estimated to host about 30.14-million tonnes of reserve, grading 1.31% copper for 394 500 t of contained copper.
This was up 208 200 t on the previous estimate of 186 300 t.
Tiger told shareholders that the increased reserve at Kipoi would be mined and processed through the Stage 2 solvent extraction electrowinning plant, which was currently under construction and was expected to start copper cathode production in the second quarter of this year.
The plant would produce about 25 000 t of copper cathode in the first 12 months of operation, and would average 50 000 t/y thereafter.
Kipoi was expected to produce 39 000 t of copper in concentrate during 2014, along with 12 000 t of copper cathode from the Stage 2 operation.