Australia-based discovery, development and exploration company Tiger Resources spent $400 000 less on exploration at its Kipoi and Luputo copper projects, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the third quarter ending September 30.

During the quarter under review, exploration expenditure was $600 000, compared with the $1-million spent in the second quarter of 2015.

Exploration activities at the Kipoi copper mine, in southern DRC, focused on geophysical surveys in the 2015 third quarter.

The gravity work has been used as orientation over the Kipoi openpit and surrounding areas to assist in identifying possible “mirror” signatures at depth, explains Tiger.

The company notes that induced polarisation (IP) work to identify subsurface materials has been completed to assist in mine planning and the sterilisation within the Kipoi mine footprint and areas to be covered by future heap-leach pads.

A total of 2 045 gravity stations were surveyed and 10.5 line kilometres of IP were completed, with Tiger awaiting the results.

The company reported a record quarterly production at reduced operating costs at Kipoi for the period under review.

The mine produced 7 139 t of copper cathode, with 6 833 t sold at a realised copper price of $5 359/t. Its cash operating costs for the third quarter reduced by 5%, from $1.48/lb in the second quarter to $1.40 lb in the third quarter.

Kipoi produced 5 723 t and 6 732 t in the first and second quarters respectively and the company predicts that it will conclude the year with 29 500 t of copper cathode produced, a figure that will exceed Tiger’s solvent extraction and electrowinning (SXEW) plant’s nameplate capacity.

Tiger started production of copper cathode at its Kipoi SXEW plant in May 2014, aiming to produce 25 000 t in its first full year of operation.

The company plans to increase this to 50 000 t/y in the future. The SXEW plant is currently capable of producing 532 000 t of copper cathode over 11 years.
Kipoi is 75 km north-west of Lubumbashi, in the central part of the Katanga Copperbelt. The Kipoi mining licence covers an area of 55 km2 and contains a 12-km-long, extensively copper/cobalt mineralised segment.
The project hosts five known copper deposits, namely Kipoi Central, Kipoi North, Kileba, Judeira and Kaminafitwe.
As of December 2014, mineral resources for the Kipoi copper project were estimated at 938 000 t of copper.
Tiger is developing the Kipoi project in stages. Stage 1 involves processing high-grade oxide copper mineralisation through a heavy media separation plant, which started copper concentrate production in mid-2011 and ceased operations in October 2014.

Ore reserves from the Kipoi Central, Kileba and Kipoi North deposits, as well as Judeira and other deposits in the Kipoi and Lupoto project areas, will be processed during Stage 2 operations, which began in May 2014, when Kipoi started copper cathode production. No mining is required for the first two years of Stage 2 operations. Tiger reported in September that it had about 270 000 t of stacked ore and 5 254 t of stacked copper.