Dual-listed Jubilee Metals Group has entered into a third-party run-of-mine (RoM) chrome ore offtake agreement that fully commits its Windsor chrome beneficiation plant for the next three years, with an option for this to be extended further.
Under the terms of the offtake agreement, Jubilee will produce 40 000 t a month of chrome concentrate or, subject to the chrome content in the RoM, saleable chrome concentrate, while also retaining the rights to all discard material, including the contained platinum-group metals (PGMs).
In addition, Jubilee has also successfully entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with a privately held South African company to secure the rights to a further 35 000-t-a-month chrome processing capacity (Windsor 8).
Under the JV agreement, Jubilee will assume operational control of the Windsor 8 facility, while also committing to upgrade it using Jubilee’s processing solutions.
Windsor 8 is expected to start operating by the end of September.
“Jubilee continues to aggressively drive its expansion across both its South African and Zambian operations. Our significant progress in Zambia, as announced last week, is followed by the successful implementation of these two key agreements supporting the expansion of our South African chrome and PGM operations.
"These agreements have been secured on the back of Jubilee’s record of continuously driving to set new industry standards,” comments Jubilee CEO Leon Coetzer.
He adds that the offtake agreement secures not only a constant feed source for Windsor under a protected operational margin, but also significantly increases Jubilee’s surface PGM resources from the discard of the chrome operations.
“The successful completion of the offtake agreement is credit to the Jubilee team’s ability to consistently achieve exceptional chrome recovery efficiencies well above the norm in the industry.”
Also, he notes that the new facility and JV partner were carefully selected to establish a presence in a strategic location that will provide Jubilee with further opportunities to increase its chrome ore supply.