LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Jubilee Metals announced on Thursday that it has secured exclusive rights to the Large Waste Project in Zambia for a reduced consideration of $18m, down from the previously-agreed $30m, and now had until mid-May to decide whether to proceed with the acquisition.
The AIM-traded firm said the company had conducted due diligence on the project, including sampling, laboratory analysis and pilot trials, to assess the viability of processing the material.

Of the $18m consideration, approximately $11.5m remained payable over a 12-month period if Jubilee opted to acquire the assets.

Based on encouraging results to date, Jubilee said it had agreed to sell 10 million tonnes of the estimated 260 million tonnes of material from the project to a multinational metals company in a deal valued at $6.75m.

The arrangement would also provide valuable processing data from the buyer's facilities, giving Jubilee further insight into the material's performance and supporting its decision on whether to pursue full-scale development.

"Jubilee's copper strategy continues to gain further momentum on the back of the restart of its Roan Concentrator processing high-grade copper material as well as the expansion of its Munkoyo mining operation," said chief executive officer Leon Coetzer.

"The Large Waste Project offers tremendous potential for Jubilee to significantly expand its copper portfolio in Zambia.

"We have been considering carefully the optimal partner for the implementation of the project especially following the encouraging results of the due diligence review."

Coetzer said Jubilee had held extensive engagements with numerous interested parties on the best way to monetise the project.

"The project has attracted keen interest from both metal offtake backed funding as well as large multinational copper producing entities interested to partner on the potential project.

"The trade of this small quantity of material compared with the size of the asset - less than 5% of the estimated contained material - not only demonstrates the potential value of the asset but also offers Jubilee the opportunity to confirm the technical performance of the material through a large-scale trial."

At 1031 BST, shares in Jubilee Metals were flat at 3.1p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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