Berkeley Mineral Resources on copper programme in Zambia

4th Feb 2013 08:56

Berkeley Mineral Resources announced Monday that it has kicked off operations at its copper processing pilot programme at Ndola, northern Zambia.Production is under way after securing the industrial zone site, according to the group which is engaged in the processing of copper tailings dumps - the materials left over after the method of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore.The site is located within a kilometre of Bwana Mkubwa and is centrally positioned to provide direct road connections to all the copper tailings in the Ndola area owned by the company and its partners. The plant will be designed with a production capacity of 150 tonnes a month of high grade copper cathodes.Berkeley also announced the appointment of Johann Steynberg to its management team in Zambia. The South African consultant has previously worked as Processing Divisional Manager for Palabora Mining Co. and has consulted on projects for SRK, Rio Tinto, Namaqua Copper, Mwana Africa, Goldfields and African Copper in Botswana. "We are pleased to see the copper processing programme under way now that the site has been secured and are delighted that Johann Steynberg, an acknowledged authority on copper plant design and processing, will be leading the metallurgical studies in developing BMR's copper projects in Northern Zambia," Chairman, Masoud Alikhani, said.Shares rose 6.25% to 2.55p at 9:13 Monday. RD