JOHANNESBURG – Mining company Central Copper Resources said on Wednesday it had started to develop the Mbamba Kilenda copper project in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a pre-feasibility study already commenced.
In a statement, the company said the pre-feasibility study was designed to take cognisance of the constraints and challenges brought about by the global Covid-19 pandemic.
The Mbamba Kilenda projected is located within 70 kilometres of Kinshasa and sits on the west copper belt which extends over 1,400 km from Angola, the DRC, Congo Republic to Gabon.
Previous drilling has proved high grade oxide copper, zinc, lead and silver mineralisation.
The unique nature of the orebody is defined as a shallow mineral continuity in a high-grade horizontal seam, which allows for the use of low cost, bulk mining methods with the advantage of automated operation, Central Copper Resources said.
"The development of our first project on the eastern end of the strike area is the company’s priority, initially including the completion of a pre-feasibility and then a final feasibility," chief executive Kevin van Wouw said.
"We intend our first project to bring more than 1,000,000 tons of copper in reserve, while at the same time the exploration and development of new project targets in the remainder of the strike length will be considered."
He said the company’s strategy was to complete the pre-feasibility study by October, during which time it would seek partnerships or funding to continue regional exploration and commence trial mining.
The DRC copper belt includes some of the highest grade copper deposits in the world and in some reserves the grades are above five percent.
African News Agency (ANA)