Intrepid Mines Ltd. shareholders voted in favor of selling the Kitumba copper project in Zambia to Weatherly International Plc.
Weatherly said Feb. 2 that it changed the development plan for Kitumba and now intends to carry out development in two phases, with the initial focus on an area with higher-confidence mineralization and better grades.
The underground mine plan will be revised to focus on the phase-one development area, with CapEx reduced to suit a mining production rate of 750,000 to 1.0 million tonnes of ore per annum in the first phase.
At a 2% copper cutoff grade, Kitumba hosts measured and indicated resources of 9.5 million tonnes at 3.6% copper for 342,000 tonnes contained copper, with 5.3 million at 4.04% copper in the measured category and 4.2 million tonnes at 3.05% copper in the indicated category.
Weatherly plans to complete a pre-feasibility study on the first phase of mine development in 2018 and a bankable feasibility study by the end of 2019 and start construction in 2020.
