Jubilee Metals Group PLC ($JLP)
Earnings Call Transcript · June 10, 2026
Highlights from the call
In the Q2 FY2026 earnings call for Jubilee Metals Group PLC, management highlighted significant operational advancements at the Molefe Mine, indicating a ramp-up in copper production from 6,000 tonnes to a target of 10,000 tonnes by October. Revenue and earnings figures were not disclosed, but the company emphasized its strategic focus on transitioning from third-party material processing to self-sourced resources. Management maintained a positive outlook, signaling a potential increase in production capacity and efficiency through on-site processing initiatives.
Main topics
- Molefe Mine Production Ramp-Up: Management announced a production ramp-up at the Molefe Mine, targeting an increase from 6,000 tonnes of run-of-mine high-grade copper in June to 10,000 tonnes by October. CEO Leon Coetzer stated, "The tonnage from this mine steps up by nearly 80% from its previous mining rate."
- On-Site Processing Strategy: The company is implementing an on-site processing strategy, including ore sorting technology to enhance efficiency and reduce transport costs. Coetzer noted that this would allow for "accurate and consistent" ore selection, improving overall economics.
- Expansion of Sable Refinery: Management discussed the expansion of the Sable Refinery, which is linked to the increased output from Molefe. The refinery is currently operating at half capacity, with potential to expand to 14,000 tonnes of copper cathode per month.
- Strategic Partnerships and Exploration: Jubilee is forming strategic partnerships to accelerate its mining rollout and is expanding its exploration portfolio beyond Molefe. The CEO emphasized the importance of securing additional properties, stating, "We have secured thousands of hectares that we will now target for exploration."
- Capital Expenditure Management: Management indicated that the capital expenditure for the Molefe project is expected to be lower than traditional mining operations due to existing infrastructure. Coetzer mentioned, "You'd expect it to be particularly light" compared to typical mining capital requirements.
Key metrics mentioned
- Copper Production (June): 6,000 tonnes (Targeting 10,000 tonnes by October, up from 6,000 tonnes in June.)
- Copper Production (October Target): 10,000 tonnes (Projected increase from 6,000 tonnes in June.)
- Sable Refinery Capacity: 14,000 tonnes (Current capacity is at half, with potential to expand.)
- Stockpiled Copper Material: 2.5 million tonnes (Significant stockpile of medium to low-grade copper at Molefe.)
- Stripping Ratio: 6:1 (Improved efficiency from previous ratios of 14:1.)
- Long-term Production Target: 20,000 tonnes per month (Long-term goal for Molefe production.)
Jubilee Metals Group PLC is positioned for significant growth with its operational ramp-up at the Molefe Mine and strategic initiatives in place for on-site processing and refinery expansion. The focus on self-sourced resources and the potential for increased production capacity could serve as key catalysts for the stock. Investors should monitor developments in production targets and cost management as well as the outcomes of ongoing exploration efforts.
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Cath Drummond
AnalystsGood afternoon, and welcome to the Jubilee Metals Group plc Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses it [indiscernible] . Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Leon Coetzer, CEO. Good afternoon, sir.
Leon Coetzer
ExecutivesGood afternoon, and thank you for the introduction, and welcome to everybody that's logged in. It's been a while since I personally presented and looking forward to today's discussion. Today's focus, which is, of course, this Molefe Mine production area is one of many focused presentations we'll be scheduling throughout the course of this year, targeting specific operational areas and giving more clarity, color and insight into what we as Jubilee are currently implementing, rolling out and implementing in our Zambian copper strategy. So without further ado, we'll jump straight into the presentation. And maybe just before we kick off the presentation, just a quick step back for -- especially for everybody's understanding of where Molefe fits into the larger Jubilee strategy. We've published before what we call our 3 business pillared strategy in Zambia, our first pillar, which resembles some of the successes we had in our South African operation we sold in December, which is all about buying in third-party material, processing that third-party material and turning it into copper. It's a business model that relies on our own processing capability, which we're quite renowned for. It is our own processing capacity. We've installed, capitalized and operate. And then we buy in the various copper ores that we process. This business pillar is centered around our Roan operations in Zambia. The Roan operations made -- has been in the news in our various updates on its path to where it is today, where it operates at target, a very uniquely combined processes to give flexibility to our company for the types of ore that Roan processes. Roan will be our next project presentation that we will schedule in the coming weeks to provide shareholders insight into this unique operation that we are now running and enjoying the success of that long path of development that is Roan today. The second pillar within our business was to leverage off the first pillar where we enter a market, we establish a significant processing footprint. We get to know the environment. We start producing copper. We introduce our copper cathode into the market. We're building up a brand for the quality of copper cathode that we produce as Jubilee through that processing arm. And then our second business pillar really is one anchored by own resources. It's a business profile that ensures that our processing expertise are applied on to our own resources. It's anchored by your own profile, your own life of mine and your own resource base, which can ultimately reflect into value onto your own balance sheet and into the market. It therefore means that it replicates a traditional exploration mine to metals company. The uniqueness of this pillar is the fact that, of course, we're operational already that by the time we commenced with the development of this Molefe Mine, we were already making cathode through our first business pillar. The third business pillar that we are executing is one that replicates what we've done in South Africa, where we apply our processing expertise on to historical surface mined material. The only difference between Zambia and what we used to have in South Africa is that we own that surface material in the 240 million tonnes of overburden rock we secured in Zambia in addition to rights to various other tailings resources. So these are our 3 pillars. Today's focus is on the center pillar, which is our mining side, where we entered this mining space roughly 18 months ago with the acquisition of the rights of our Molefe project. If we look back and dial the clock back roughly 10-odd months in August, we made a few statements on the rationale, what we aim to achieve, and then we can reflect on whether, in fact, we achieved what we set out under this second pillar of mine-to-metals. We mentioned the fact that in Zambia, we would steadily move towards an integrated mine-to-metals company. It is a company that relies on its own resources and applies its processing capacity onto its own resources predominantly. We said that our strategy would be aimed to dilute or move away in time from relying on third-party run of mine as an anchor supply to our refinery as the dominant supply going forward would come from our own resources. Therefore, meant that Jubilee looking forward, would replicate or look more like a traditional mine-to-metals company where it has an exploration profile, it has a profile of mining operating assets, and it has a significant processing footprint in country that turns that mined ore into cathode, a traditional large copper company. As along this way from where we are to get to that significant, we also indicated that we would be forming strategic partnerships along the way to accelerate that rollout and also make the capital requirement lighter to achieve this fully integrated mines-to-metal company. Where are we today? Molefe, as we've said in our previous announcements has mined a significant amount of copper reef already. It's the unique approach we had where we said if we're going into mining, let's combine being operational while we develop and roll out resource statements. We have statements. We had that ability unique in that it has multiple copper outcrop areas. So it means the copper is accessible. It's not a large overburden or a large significant amount of earth that has to be moved to dig a hole from where you ultimately expose the copper reef. The area in which Molefe is located is blessed with multiple areas where the copper actually breaks through and is visible from surface. Equal, as part of forming our strategic partnership is we launched a drilling program of this resource to update and review what the formal mine plan for this opportunity should be ultimately supported by a fully JORC-compliant or SAMREC-coated depending on your jurisdiction, would describe the resource from a competent person's report. In addition, while this is being developed, while we are expanding the Molefe Mine, we also created on surface a stockpile of medium to low-grade copper. The strategy at Molefe was always that the higher-grade copper would be trucked directly to our refinery because we're in this position where we already have a copper refinery. This is not the typical development of an exploration right into ultimately a mining right into a mining plan, a mine and then capitalize into processing. We kickstart life with an operating refinery already producing copper cathode. This stockpiled material for the size of this mine is already exceeding nearly 2.3 closing -- reaching 2.5 million tonnes of rock on surface in its own right, a very significant value if you just extrapolate to some of the values we've told the market on that we've attained on some of the surface materials we hold rights to. Phase 2 of this development is the Phase 2 drilling program that once we've now drilled the resource sufficiently to implement a formal mine plan is to continue the drilling program as we define the remaining resource to the compliant statement. Maybe just a quick overview for Zambia for those that don't quite know where Zambia is. At the bottom there, South Africa is where our main focus was. The -- in Africa, just above Botswana, you've got Zambia and in Zambia. And in Zambia, in that center area of Zambia within that central province, it borders the Northwestern side, which is the new frontier of copper, and it borders the Northeastern side where there are quite a number of established copper mines. In the center there, you'll see a Sable Refinery, where it is our central refinery where our various concentrate materials are trucked to where we then produce our copper cathode. The refinery's capacity is being expanded and the expansion rate is married to the development rate of our Molefe Mine and area so that its capacity is linked to the requirement to refine the various ores coming from our operations. The refinery has got 2 copper tank houses. Those are the areas where you plate your copper, we plate your copper. We're currently operating on the buildings are already in existence. Roan concentrator sits just to the north of Sable, while Molefe sits slightly to the east of Sable. Roan is in that -- where the 2 kidneys of Zambia comes together. And Roan is a fully operating facility. It's been capitalized over a prolonged period as we've adjusted that process to be able to process the materials that Roan currently focuses on. These materials are predominantly copper oxide materials, which by their very nature, are more complex, are more variable in quality and content and Roan's process has adjusted to be able to process that very efficiently. The last addition Roan received has been what we call the new dewatering system for one of its products. Roan makes 3 products and the dewatering system is one that accelerates the drying of one of those products being the very fine concentrate. It is a particularly unique approach to be able to dewater what most companies find extremely difficult. When particles are that fine to separate water from particles becomes particularly challenging. And Roan has solved that problem only for Roan, but very likely has solved that problem for the industry. And how do you actually produce a dewatered concentrate from that product. It therefore means that Roan is now able to send more copper product to Sable for refining into cathode. And then the last one there at the bottom is the Molefe, we call it the Molefe Greater District. The reason for that is that beyond Molefe Mine, that certainly isn't our only target. We've acquired rights to vast greater properties than Molefe itself. Molefe running at about 400 hectares on surface. We've gone and taken that through our rights to thousands of hectares that we have secured, which we will now target our exploration project to roll out to. These properties were selected because from the visual inspection, the aerial inspections, they seem to replicate the potential success that Molefe has been. As we discussed and touched on maybe some often not quite communicated accurately through our announcements, there is a particular value differentiator. -- when you look at Jubilee and copper. When most companies enter a copper and they bring the opportunity to market, it is driven by an asset that has explored, developed into mining and follows the chain of production. Jubilee is very different because of our 3 business pillars. We are a company with a well-established processing platform. In that processing platform, we have 2 operating assets that are processing, operating and producing high-quality cathode in Roan and our Sable refinery. We have a significant in-country presence. It is probably the most valuable investment in our portfolio is to be in country and have been in country for a few years. The lessons that have been learned, the obstacles that had to be overcome to produce copper are invaluable lessons, invaluable assets in our group. And that barrier of entry is set so much higher for other companies who wish to enter into a jurisdiction that is maybe not well understood and it's challenges, not well understood. The second component is on the back of that success that we have now achieved and lessons we have now learned and the knowledge on how to operate in this country. We are now transitioning into a resource-backed copper entity on the back of secured rights in exploration rights and operating mining right on the back of, as we said, operating processing platforms. It therefore means that our long-term value is driven by 2 drivers. We have a near-term production of copper cathode, which now steps up on the back of these 2 assets that are currently operational. We have our long-term value underpinned by a resource growth and a resource statement to underpin our mine life expansions. So we have both the mining upside being combined with an existing processing capability. If you were to look at the typical capitalization of a mine, it is multiples above what we have at Molefe because we have your existing processing platform already operating, which is normally a significant capital component on the mining projects. Molefe in picture there. This picture is a couple of months old, a couple of weeks old actually. What you are looking at is a top view. In view there is the Pit 2. It is the overburden or the pre-stripping program we announced in April and accelerated through May. This stems from the drilling program that designed our mine that restated our mining targets and our mining operational model in partnership with Galileo. The -- what you're looking at there is Pit 2. It is being developed down to the bottom of the picture where it ultimately will extend into Pit 3 to become 1 mega pit. -- that we mine. From that photo, you can see the shallowness how near surface the reef is. The reef is being exposed. The steps you're seeing is the trenching as we pre-sample reef before mining and loading it. You can also see from the picture that is what they call free dig. We are not yet drilling and blasting. It currently is free digging, which makes it even cheaper to mine. The Phase 2 drilling program, which we will show the picture for you later, is now extending down to the Southeast as we explore the reef as it bends down to the Southeast. There are a total of 9 pits on this property, previously mined by various companies in a more of an informal manner. It gives you a sense if you look at that picture and you just let your eyes drift up, you'll see what looks like a dam. It's actually a jaggered original pit dug by the mining company before us. You'll see it's not -- there's no structure to it. It's quite narrow. Therefore, your access of trucks and loaders to step up the mining rate is challenged and nor is it of a safety standard that you would expect from a listed company and a company such as Jubilee. The drilling program, as we spoke. The first is the Phase 1 and partially Phase 2 drilling holes across that property. It gives you a sense of the extent of the mines or the previous pits that were opened at Molefe Mine and to the right of this picture just shows you as we bend down southeast as the reef bends down to that natural shape, the next drilling program will -- is been undertaken. Those holes shown there are already drilled. Just to define the reef direction, it now will increase in the number of drilling with fixed spacing to be compliant for our resource statement we spoke about. Molefe is in a particular development program. It's a very structured program. We're following through on Molefe. Just giving a pictorial view, Phase 1 is done. Phase 1's biggest outcome was the mine plan that was designed, implemented. And of course, the difference between this mine plan and an exploration drilling and then mine plan is the fact that we're already operational. We have thousands of samples from operations from our pretrenching to confirm the accuracy of our mine plan. It's a particular advantage to be in that you are able to confirm what you've drilled through actual operation and taking ore into cathode. The outcome of Phase 2, the biggest outcome of that would be a resource statement to finally put to market the value of this property to finally bring it on to our balance sheet and get recognition for that value and investment that has gone into this operation. thereafter, of course, is the expansion. As I said, we're going from hundreds of hectares to thousands of hectares we've secured for the expansion of the regional drilling and exploration area of Molefe. Phase 1 drilling, we've touched on. It was quite a significant drilling program. As we say, the 3,500 roughly meters of drilling done. It's -- wide is particularly significant if you think of our shallow this reef is. It just gives you an overview there on the right. It's a very old picture as the pre-stripping program commenced. Phase 1 drilling, as we said, new mine plan, Pit 2 and 3 being combined into a single mega pit that is ongoing. Pit 2's expansion is now completed. That was the announcement as we commenced delivery of a run of mine ore from that pit to our Sable Refinery last week. And already for the month of June, as announced, the tonnage from this mine steps up by nearly 80% from its previous mining rate. And from there, it continues where we're going up by a factor of 3 to 4x the amount of material from this mine on a sustained basis. The updated mine plan we've discussed, I mean a figure there that maybe for people don't quite understand the technical terms, the stripping -- average stripping ratio of the mine plan at 6:1 is exceptional. What it means is that you are -- for the amount of material you have to mine 1 tonne out of every 6 tonne is actually reef. It shows you how the mine plan drives efficiencies that the amount of ore and therefore, the amount of copper you mine for every tonne uplifted has significantly increased to where we previously were hovering at 14 tonnes mine for a tonne of reef coming down to the 6 tonnes for a tonne of reef, very significant on your cost efficiency, number of equipment you need to implement the mine plan and consistency and safety of mining from this mine plan. Just some numbers because quite often to put 6:1 and stripping ratios and tonnage rates into actual tonnages, you'll see on the table there, it's roughly broken into quarters from commencing our stripping to give you a sense at the bottom line, what the actual copper units are that will be delivered to our refinery from this mine and what are the copper units delivered to surface. As you can see, it's a significant step-up, driven by the width of the new pit, driven by the accessibility of that reef, the shallow dipping of the reef, which means it gets deeper very slowly and the consistency of that reef supported by the drilling program. So Molefe becomes a -- there were questions around why we're calling it an anchor or the reason we call it an anchor of our strategy is because of its consistent increased contribution to our copper production. You can see where it plateaus. 2 Molefe's are already bigger than all of our copper cathode production. 3 Molefe's is a multiple higher than our current production. And if you look at the size of our current Molefe property at a couple of hundred hectares compared to the thousands of hectares we have secured, one can see that there's a potential for a significant number of Molefe Mines to be established within our existing exploration portfolio. What comes next for this mine, what we've discussed and spoke about in some of our announcements is the development of the on-site processing capability. At the moment, Molefe, which is quite close, roughly 52 to 54 kilometers from our refinery on a dedicated road, bridges that we've constructed. And we only take the high grade, it's 1.6% roughly ultimately copper ore to our refinery. We still have a significant amount of copper ore, which is being stockpiled in the lower grades, is 0.8% to 0.6% copper, still significant copper grades on site. That material is stockpiled for on-site processing. On-site processing means 2 distinct processes. The first is what we call ore sorting. Ore sorting means that we automatically and using online technology are able to select the ore into high grade, medium grade, lower grade and waste on site? It means it doesn't have to be done manually? It doesn't have to affect the mining. It is done on surface to allocate accurately the ore for trucking direct to Sable as well as the different grade profiles, which has -- each requires a specific processing solution. The on-site ore selection or sorting program has already commenced. The first ore sorter is in Zambia and to implement the process goes through very specific steps, not to go too technical, but the first step is actually defining the recipe or defining the data set for the ore sorter to ensure that what it measures through its various techniques actually has a statistical accurate link to the copper grade. And that is the first part of the project. This takes roughly about 8 to 10 weeks of intense work, bulk samples going through this facility as we define that data set before we complete the detailed design on site. It's light on power, light on capital. So it's not a particular complex installation once that first phase has been successfully completed. The second phase, which is more involved is the actual chemical extraction of the copper. And the size of that modular unit, as we called it, has gone through various reviews driven by the new mine plan, driven by the drilling outcome and equally driven by the sharp increases in -- as you've seen with the current challenges that the world is facing on diesel costs and asset costs that we had to adjust our project to accommodate these higher prices. So it would mean that what you truck to Sable has to be more accurate and of a specific grade to ensure your transport cost doesn't destroy a significant component of the contained copper value. So that program is currently being reviewed. Johnny through our financial and commercial team is ensuring that the capitalization and returns of that project remains to expectation. And that will probably take another 2, 3 months to complete to be able to accurately define for the market, this is the size, this is the time line and this is the capital that, that modular units will require. The modular units that we are designing are by design, very capital light by design, learning from our South African experience where we so successfully rolled out our modular units. It's about reaching an economical grade of copper to transport it to Sable. It's not about producing a salable product. That's the reason why it's so capital light because you have this advantage we're only 53, 54 kilometers away, you have a fully capitalized operating refinery already. That's what the modular units seek to do to ensure that transport cost is a very small component of the actual carrying value per tonne. Phase 2, we've discussed, it's all about the expansion of our drilling program. The outcome that we're chasing so hard of our Phase 2 is a JORC as we call it, or SAMREC-coded statement of our resource so that people can recognize the value. People can compare it to other mining companies. People can apply their multiple on the copper units contained to come to a value that this mine would reflect on the balance sheet and be recognized in the market. And therefore, the drive and the pressure on completing that drill program is specifically high to ensure we reach that point. So it can be recognized for what it is rather than purely on our copper production. It's a significant potential value that is sitting in our company and will be released on the back of our resource compliant statement. As we said, Molefe, it is a validation of what we said upfront when we reviewed the opportunities in Zambia and when we looked at entering into Zambia. It's a validation of securing property that can be rapidly turned into an operating operation or project while expanding and exploring that facility. It's a proof of concept that is not common. It's a proof of concept that we saw this opportunity and seized it. It is why we secured thousands of hectares before proving up the resource also become unaffordable to acquire. And that is what Molefe is. It's on the back of our first business pillar, which is an operating facility processing other people's material into cathode that we sell and make a margin on. It's on the back of that investment. It's on the back of those lessons learned that we are able to implement Molefe, accelerate the implementation, already delivering run-of-mine material to our refinery under a structured mining plan informed by a drilling program. While we expand the drilling program for the definition of the larger resource. And absolutely, we look to replicate that success across Zambia because we're ahead of the pack in showing this. We're ahead of other competitors in showing how this can be done because the barrier to acquire a refinery and build a concentrator is so high in capital, so long on time line that we have made sure that this lane we are in is secured for ourselves for a while to come. As we've said, through this, we have demonstrated our capability to operate to overcome numerous challenges thrown at us within the country from infrastructure to environment. And yes, very valuable lessons learned along the way, underestimating initially what it takes to get to that operational state and now finally arriving at that operational state. Our next phase of the business is scale. Having a copper -- being in copper, be having a copper refinery, scale is critical. Your fixed cost structures in refining is a significant component of your cost structure. And therefore, scale is very important to ensure your margins are protected, offer significant capital return. And it's that expansion drive on the back of the Molefe success and the fact that our Roan concentrator is currently operating to target that we are now able to pursue. That concludes the discussion of the presentation on Molefe. I hope that, that has assisted in understanding better what we are doing. I have no doubt that there are views that we could do what we do faster. We should do it, deliver the results and deliver the value faster. But it is a buildup of circumstances. It's a buildup of lessons learned, and it's a buildup of 2 critical operational arms finally coming together and now reflecting in our copper output. The beauty of where we are today is that you're sitting with a fully capitalized concentrator, a fully capitalized and operating refinery and a capitalized mine that now delivers its run of mine. Very few companies in copper in Zambia can lay claim to that outcome. I thank you for listening to avoid any further delays. I think the next phase of this presentation is I'll dig into the questions. We've received a list of questions, and there's a few questions popping up as I spoke on -- from investors. What I am going to do is really focus the questions that are specific to Molefe. Many of the questions outside of Molefe address in the next hosted presentation on our Roan facility as well as the third phase, which, of course, is our large waste project. There's a few that I think is quite pertinent that I will address and touch on. But to jump right in, and we'll try and get through as many as I can of these questions where we do not get to them, as initially said at the beginning of this presentation, we'll definitely endeavor to list them and write the answers where we can. Of course, we can't use this platform to make announcements that hasn't previously been announced, but we certainly can give color and maybe explain and correct maybe misunderstandings along the way.
Leon Coetzer
ExecutivesThe first question, grouping of questions was around the capital expenditure which is expected to complete the next phase of the Molefe ramp-up. That's the phase of ramp-up as we announced, going from the 6,000 tonnes of run-of-mine high grade for this month up to 8,500 in August and then 10 to October. On that capital, well, we've capitalized Molefe. The only remaining component of Molefe's working capital as the mine expands. The bigger capital drive of establishing the mine -- or acquiring the mine, establishing the mine and doing the full pre-stripping to go into operation has been completed. The next part of that question is the on-site processing strategy. I think we touched on that in the presentation is that the first phase, which is the ore sorting. -- these capital as this phase now currently undergoing the definition work of the data set of the ore sorter, linking it to the data of the actual copper mineralogy of the ore that will define the accurate capital, which we'll bring to market. The second component, which makes that answer slightly complicated is the fact that we yet again have to rework our models on the back of the sharp jump in diesel prices, asset prices in the market that our commercial team is currently reviewing. So we'll bring that to market very shortly. But by definition, as we said, the capitalization numbers are particularly low because of the fact that your large capital investment in your refinery has already been made. It links into your second question, which is about capital intensity on the infrastructure and how that compares to traditional mining, well, one can expect it to be particularly light. If you were to compare our capitalization of the Molefe mine compared to traditional mine, you'd expect it to be a multiple less because of your first business pillar as well as the fact of how shallow the ore is at Molefe and the proximity of the Molefe operation to our refinery. And then the final component is because of the processing techniques we've developed to upgrade that ore rather than making a salable product of that ore for our refinery. How should investors think about the longer-term production profile for Molefe beyond the initial 10,000 tonnes? Well, as we said before, we are targeting up to a 20,000 tonnes per month of copper reef being mined at Molefe. Of course, that means it's 20x 6. If you take in the stripping ratio, the physical tonnes that are being mined, it's quite a large operation and that of that ore, part will be processed on site and the rest is trucked directly to Sable. A question around what production scale Molefe can district can ultimately support if additional exploration successes continues. It's a question tough to answer, and I certainly can't be speculating here. The only sense it gives us great excitement is the visual view and aerial surveys we've done of the greater exploration areas as well as that drilling that we've done towards the southeastern side of the property, it certainly suggests there's a lot more Molefe's potential in that area. The question around Sable flexibility and capacity in Sable, how bigger -- how much more can Sable be expanded to accommodate the potential of the Molefe district. As we discussed, Sable has -- currently, we use one of the tank houses at Sable. It's running roughly at half of its capacity both tank houses extrapolates to 7,000 to 14,000 tonnes of copper cathode per month. Expanding beyond that 14,000 at Sable has limited potential because of the footprint congestion that happens in that area. You potentially could by increasing further the feed grades, increasing further the upgrading at the Molefe sites, but it wouldn't be a material increase. The timing on the first production of ore sorting at Molefe, as we discussed, the first phase now, which is 8 to 10 weeks is the definition work of the ore characterization of the data to make sure it links strongly to our actual grade profiles. And thereafter, it's probably a 4-month process, 6 months top end to physically implement the ore sorting system because it is not a particularly complex supporting infrastructure that is required. How do we expect the cutoff grades to be impacted? By this, it's purely the accuracy that is impacted. So it makes sure that what you send to Sable is accurate, consistent and meets that grade, and it's also far simpler to adjust that selection of ore. It means mining can potentially mine more, and knowing that the ore sorting accuracy has been taken care of. Again, the next questions are about timing is how quickly we can replicate the modular solutions. Can the modular solutions be expanded? The short answer is yes. As in most projects, your most difficult first step is the infrastructure required for the first system. Expanding infrastructure thereafter becomes far simpler, and it's part of our designs in ensuring the power allocation for the area, the road infrastructure for the area supports way more than just the first system. We will bring out the modular approach later in the year. There are a particular technique approaches there that we're not keen to publicly publicize at this stage. There's a lot of IP in how we upgrade that ore so effectively to a significantly higher grade prior to refining it to cathode, which has been done in-house through our team. The next question is around the balance between internally mined feed and our third-party run-of-mine supply. We addressed it in the presentation. You will consistently see a sharp growth in our own mined material versus the third-party ROM. Yes, there's still a potential, as we discussed in the market for a slight increase in the third-party ROM through the front end of Roan, -- the decision whether we bring that online in June as well to step up throughput is something we'll explain when we specifically talk through the Roan project and its potential and how its processes operate together to allow us such great flexibility. Operating synergies between Molefe Mine, Roan and Sable, significant. In copper, throughput and volume is king. In a refinery, it is important because higher copper volumes dilute fixed costs, significantly increases margins for the company. And because Sable is that central anchor that takes on Molefe and takes on Roan, there are great synergies beyond, of course, people, technical support, et cetera. But the synergies of Molefe, Roan grades, higher grade out of Molefe on-site processing means transport costs and its impact on copper margins become less as we roll out the processes, many of the process techniques already embedded at Roan into the Molefe on-site processing solution. On the next question about how do we Jubilee expect the economics of low-grade material to change once on-site upgrading and processing has been established. Well, the answer is dramatic. We're not processing a low grade at the moment. It's a working capital that sits on the mine and growing, unlocking that value where we have nearly 2.4 million tonnes already sitting on surface and growing to unlock that copper in addition, the amount of copper we add every month onto that stockpile has a significant value release for the market. It means that we're planning to currently transport 10,000 tonnes of high-grade ore through to Sable at the estimated 950 tonnes of copper cathode, it nearly increases by nearly 60-odd percent the amount of copper you add to the profile from just the low-grade side. So it's a significant step-up coming from the Molefe area. It is that key step up as we step up from a 4,000 to 5,000 to 10,000 to 15,000 and beyond 1,000 tonnes of copper per year as these various building blocks start linking into one another. It was a vision we had laid out in front that we target our 25,000 tonnes of copper. We now are showing the market how these blocks start building into one another as we step up those various production outputs. A question around Galileo and the role it plays in Molefe. Galileo plays a key role in Molefe. They are integrated into our executive management side. They provide the exploration knowledge as well as mining knowledge into the project. They were integral part in the development of the new mine plan, which was reviewed externally by consultants. They bring that wealth of experience through their exploration programs in multiple countries into this focused project. That skill would typically be very difficult to secure for a project, the initial side of Molefe. Obviously, when Molefe expands to where it's on its way to, you will attract more of that skill into the company. What milestones remain under the Galileo earn-in structure, basically currently validating and auditing accounts to ensure there's an investment hurdle that has to be overcome. And secondly, there's a resource definition hurdle that has to be overcome for the Galileo side. Very key question around what are the most important operational milestones investors should look forward to or watch out for over the coming 12 months. Well, there's a few very key simple ones. Number one, the first business pillar is around Roan. What you can expect to see is the Roan consistent delivery of its targets, the step-up of copper units it is delivering now to Sable and of course, the outcome of whether we commence that front end on top of what we do right now at Roan and the Molefe's step-out, very clear, known. We've given the targets what we have to chase from Molefe. So it translates to increased copper output. That's what you expect to see. The second component is clarity on the on-site development at Molefe of the on-site processing. Ore sorting and processing, the 2 phases of that solution. That clarity is what you can expect to be brought out to market as we've now commenced the next phase, which is the actual bulk testing of ore through a sorter to define its data set. That will be an outcome, for example, because it gives you the triggers for the construction time lines as well. Clear direction on our large waste project is an expectation you can have. It means we've told the market, we've got 2 companies we're considering to partner with on that large waste project. Those discussions are well developed, and one can expect an outcome from those discussions in the very near future on how, what we're doing on a large waste project because it's such a significant amount of surface material that sits in our portfolio. And that outcome is an expectation you can have well long before 12 months. The last component is the step out of the future, the step-up of our refinery, the step-out as we're building our blocks on our operational step-out from Roan to Molefe to wider Molefe to greater Male to the next Molefe as that steps out and the large waste project clarity. That would be what investors can look forward to over the coming 12 months as that now comes through, reporting, as you can expect, as a typical mining company on the one side, complemented by our third-party refining going forward. It also means that we've been holding back on giving updated guidance. The rationale is quite simple. We've learned our lessons. This is now about giving -- once we have these building blocks coming in is to give guidance based on our operating assets rather than guidance on a project being developed to ensure that clarity to address the frustration of missing targets about missing production targets. It's more about missing project targets and giving production targets too soon. And that -- those lessons have culminated into a mine plan that we can put to market, given a Roan operating plant that we can give to market. And that's where we are at the moment. The last question really was about the scalability of Molefe. Is it outside of the Molefe Greater District? Of course, our key focus right now is the Molefe Greater District. We've got our secured properties. We have to launch our exploration programs, but we certainly aren't blind to further opportunities outside of that district. We are well plugged in into our jurisdiction. Our teams are well plugged into the area. We have a significant team based in Zambia. I'm personally there most of my life. So you've got an educated workforce looking at, of course, many more opportunities than what we've currently brought into operation. Just going through the latest questions. There's a few that has come up. Just touching on some of them. They're not quite around Molefe, which is our key focus, but I'll just touch on a few. They speak of the South African sale and those funds that come through. We've, of course, as you're well aware, we've received the payments in December. Our next payment date is coming December, 6 months away of the next payment date of that sale of that operation -- of the South African operation coming through that. So it's a very nice liquidity event lying forward as we have nearly $65 million coming into the group from that sale outside of what's already been paid. And as we said, that next trigger date is in December this year is that next trigger date. There's questions around just again, clarity on Project G that's part of our mining portfolio. Purely, Molefe has just overtaken Project G. It's overtaken Project G in its potential, and therefore, we've zoned in our focus on Molefe to secure it, expand it, secure the properties. We haven't forgotten about Project G, but Project G's current sizing is well below that of where Molefe is right now. So every dollar we spend is better spent into Molefe than currently spending it on Project G. So Project G, we've parked until the latter half of this calendar year, while we secure the completion of the pre-stripping program, the drilling program and the expansion of Molefe. There's a question around the upcoming EGM that is coming on Monday as we've published that quite the EGM. It purely is focused on the most critical component of the EGM. We're living in a world in Zambia specifically, where we have a vast expanding copper focus in Zambia. There's huge competition for critical people and skill in Zambia. We have put together an exceptional Zambian team. We have an exceptional technical and operational team following the successes and what we've overcome to reach where we are. It would be absolutely senseless to lose that skill and that level of commitment to competitors. And one of the key components we look for incentivization of a very specific band of people is through the ability to secure these people through an incentivization scheme of potentially options because they feel they are then linked into our company and our company's success. It aligns people's thinking, it aligns their commitment. It's one of the fundamental drivers behind the EGM and a fundamental component to the continued success of our company. No company can be successful without the right people and the right commitment, especially commitment. Very intelligent, very highly skilled people without commitment has less value than highly committed individuals, and this is recognized by the companies. New entrants coming into Zambia, we've seen it in our South African business. The first door they would knock on are people with a track record, people who have overcome challenges and are still standing and is operating. That inherent knowledge and skill is invaluable in employees and is vitally important to retain for both our success and your success in the company. Just looking to make sure I haven't missed any particular area of questions that just come through. It speaks to the Sable expansion. Maybe I didn't quite explain that properly. The Sable expansion, which already has its 2 tank houses, the one is operational, the other tank house, the building is now is there. The infrastructure is there. The leach tanks are under construction for the Sable. The timing of the Sable expansion is linking into the Molefe plan. As the Molefe operational plan kicks in, is -- that's the requirement of the Sable expansion. So we're trying to be as capital efficient as we can to link the 2 as close as possible so that we expand alongside the expansion of Molefe, but very vitally importantly, not get caught short where we are expanding and delivering material to Sable beyond its refining capacity. So that is what we are linking in very carefully. The delivery of the processing on-site processing facilities at Molefe is a vital step into the requirement of refining capacity because it ups the amount of copper units from Molefe so, so significantly. And that is where the link comes in. And that clarity will be part of what you'll see in rolling out the processing on-site facility at Molefe because the 2 links so tightly for Zambia. And that, I think, concludes today. I know I've taken up a lot of your time going through this. I hope that it gives a sense of clarity of what we are pursuing in Zambia. I hope it gives a better understanding of our business pillars that we are driving the success. Yes, may be too slow and may be delayed, but the current success we've achieved, here's a company who has achieved Pillar 1. We have a running successful Roan operation, unique set of new processes come together to offer a solution to an industry on how to process that type of oxide run of mine, running to target, delivering its cathode in a refinery on the back of that, we have an expanded Molefe after a successful first phase drilling program with a mine plan published to the market an expanded pit that we sunk a lot of capital into to get to the success and now delivering it all, and we're now on to that expansion drive and the last remaining pillar, which is our large waste project, which we are really looking forward to bring to you all in the market on its next phase for that large waste project. I want to thank you all for the time taken, the great interest shown to be available for this presentation, and thank you for your support.
Cath Drummond
AnalystsThat's great. Thank you for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This may take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.
For developers and AI pipelines
Programmatic access to Jubilee Metals Group PLC earnings transcripts and 32,000+ others is available through the
EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments,
full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.