They became operational on December 11th.
News Release pasted below
Katanga Mining Announces Commissioning of the Core of the First
Train of Whole Ore Leach Plant and Provides an Operational Update
December 11, 2017
ZUG, SWITZERLAND, December 11th, 2017 – Katanga Mining Limited (TSX: KAT) (“Katanga” or the “Company”) today announces that it has successfully completed the hot commissioning of the core of the first train of its new whole ore leach (“WOL”) processing facility at its subsidiary Kamoto Copper Company’s (“KCC”) copper and cobalt mine in Lualaba Province, DRC. The Luilu site where the WOL and electro-winning plants of KCC are located, successfully produced its first copper cathode on December 11th, 2017.
Copper and cobalt production at KCC has been suspended since September 2015 pending the construction of the WOL project. A progressive ramp-up and commissioning of the remainder of the first train is expected to follow over the ensuing three months, with the objective of achieving full capacity on the first train by the end of Q1 2018.
Johnny Blizzard, Chief Executive Officer of Katanga, commented: “We are very pleased to have met our anticipated budget and timetable for commissioning the first train of our new plant and are optimistic that the tangible improvements from using a whole ore leach processing circuit will be seen in the near future. We look forward to ramping up to full production capacity of the first train. The construction of the second train of the WOL plant is also on schedule and budget and hot commissioning is still expected to commence in H2 2018.”
Separately, the Company announces today that its board of directors (“Board”) has approved capital expenditure budgets for the engineering and construction of an upgraded cobalt processing plant (the “Cobalt Debottlenecking Project”) and a sulphuric acid production plant at KCC, as described below.
The Board approved US$15.8 million in capital expenditures to engineer and construct a facility designed to reduce throughput bottlenecks in its existing cobalt processing circuit at KCC to align with the life of mine cobalt production plan of 30,000 tonnes per annum average annual cobalt production. The Board also approved US$49 million for cobalt product dryers as part of the cobalt production circuit. The hot commissioning of the projects are expected to commence in Q4 2018.
Subject to the successful completion of the second train of the WOL plant and of the Cobalt Debottlenecking Project, both of which hot commissioning is expected to commence in H2 2018, the Company anticipates the following production forecast for the next three financial years, at the end of which period, it expects to have a first quartile cost position within the global copper industry cost curve:
Commodity Units Production Guidance
FY 2018 FY 2019 FY 2020
Copper kt 150 300 300
Cobalt kt 11 34 32
The Board also approved US$237 million in capital expenditure spread over 2018 and 2019 to construct a Sulphuric Acid and Sulphur Dioxide production plant at KCC. This will improve the reliability of the supply of these reagents to the WOL processing circuit. The acid plant is designed to produce 1,900 tpd of Sulphuric Acid, 200 tpd of Suphur Dioxide and 17MW co-generated power. This will reduce KCC’s reliance on imported volumes of reagents brought to the mine through various international borders. The Internal Rate Of Return (IRR) for the Sulphuric Acid and Sulphur Dioxide production plant project is expected to be approximately 60%. The hot commissioning of this plant is expected to commence in H2 2019.
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