CAMEC and Cobalt
CAMEC's cobalt exploration, mining and processing activities are focused in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the world’s richest cobalt region. The Company has identified a number of opportunities in the south of the country involving, exploration, production and trading of the mineral.
Production at the plant is targeted at 6,000 tonnes of cobalt as metal and concentrate by end March 2008. The plant has a targeted template capacity of 12,000 tonnes of cobalt cathode by the end of 2008, which will make CAMEC one of the biggest producers of cobalt concentrate in the world. The facility has a DMS (dense medium separation) plant with a 150 tonne per hour feed capacity and a heap leach process unit for cobalt production. In a world first, the heap leach process is being used for cobalt production, based on its cost-effectiveness, suitability for African conditions and high recovery rates. Heap leaching of both cobalt and copper involves heaping the crushed ore and irrigating it with a dilute sulphuric acid leach solution. The solution percolates through the heap, leaching out the metals and holding them in solution. The leach solution is then collected in HDPE lined pans.
The Luita metallurgical facility is being fed by mines on the highly prospective 467 & 469 concession areas which Gecamines, the DRC national mining company, estimated to contain circa 500,000 tonnes cobalt. These are currently being drilled to JORC status. It is expected that these figures will be raised significantly following further exploration. Additional deposits have already been identified following the implementation of an extensive airborne magnetic, radiometric and electromagnetic geophysical survey and are being prioritised for drilling.
