PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed copper miner Tiger Resources has agreed to a 100 000 t copper cathode offtake agreement from the Stage 2 development of its Kipoi project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The agreement, executed with commodity trader Gerald Metals SA, was for a fixed quantity of copper cathode from the Stage 2 solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) plant, which was currently under construction and on schedule for commissioning in the second quarter of 2014.
Tiger would deliver about 2 000 t/m of cathodes during the initial phase of the SX-EW operations, increasing this to 2 500 t/m after the proposed expansion of the plant to a 50 000 t/y capacity.
Gerald had supplied a A$50-million advanced payment facility to help fund the SX-EW plant at Kipoi, which would be available for immediate drawdown after the satisfaction of customary conditions precedent, including the registration of security documents.
“We are very pleased to have arranged the $50-million advance payment against 100 000 t of Kipoi copper cathodes. Strong offers were received from eight leading international copper trading houses who participated in our tender process,” said MD Brad Marwood.
He said that the deal reflected positively on their assessment of Kipoi and its capacity to deliver copper cathodes in the DRC.
The Kipoi project delivered 12 123 t of copper in concentrate during the three months to September, which was 35% above the plant’s nameplate capacity and 9% higher than the previous quarter production record.
For the calendar year to date, the Kipoi project has delivered 32 727 t of copper in concentrate.