Sierra Leone woos miners to clean energy with $11 billion plan
Most mining firms rely on their own diesel supplies to extract iron ore, diamonds, rutile and bauxite in the resource-rich country.
KoBold Metals, backed by a coalition of billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, said on Monday its Mingomba asset in Zambia is the country’s largest copper deposit in a century and that it plans to fast-track its development.
The California-based startup has been drilling at its Zambian permit for a little over a year. During this time, KoBold president Josh Goldman said they have confirmed the “huge” size of the deposit.
Mingomba is shaping up to be “extraordinary,” he said, adding that the potential of the discovery compares to that of the Kamoa-Kakula mine, owned by Ivanhoe Mines and China’s Zijin Mining. This operation, located just across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), produced almost 400,000 tonnes of copper last year.
“The story with Mingomba is that it’s like Kakula in both the size and the grade,” Goldman said on the sidelines of Indaba mining conference in South Africa, according to Bloomberg. “It’s going to be one of the highest grade, large underground mines.”
President Hakainde Hichilema said that, according to government figures, Mingomba will produce “well over” 500,000 to 600,000 tonnes once at full tilt.
In comparison, Escondida mine in Chile, the world’s biggest copper operation, produced more than a million tonnes of the metal last year and Grasberg, in Indonesia, churned out about 770,000 tonnes of copper in 2022.
KoBold bought into the project two years ago, via a joint venture with its existing owners – Australian private equity firm EMR Capital and Zambia’s state-owned mining investment vehicle ZCCM-IH (LON: ZCC).
KoBold still plans to have the $2 billion underground copper mine in Zambia built within the decade, with first production in the early 2030s, but it needs to update resource estimate and complete feasibility studies before it makes the decision to go ahead.
Goldman is not worried about securing capital. “The issue globally, is not a lack of availability of capital. It is a lack of availability of high quality projects and where there are returns, there is capital,” he said. “For a great project, there will be capital.”
If built, the Mingomba project would align with the vision of Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema to increase the nation’s copper production to three million tonnes by 2032 to help the country reduce its debt burden.
The company is not just focused on copper, but rather all minerals and metals considered critical for the energy transition.
It began its quest for battery metals began three years ago in Canada, after it acquired rights to the area in northern Quebec, just south of Glencore’s Raglan nickel mine, where it detected lithium.
The start-up now has about a dozen exploration properties in places including Zambia, Namibia, DRC, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Western Australia, which have resulted from joint ventures with BHP (ASX: BHP) and with BlueJay Mining (LON: JAY) to explore for minerals in Greenland.
It also has exploration activities underway in South Korea and the United States and, in December, it launched a four-continent search for lithium deposits.
Using artificial intelligence, Kobold aims to create a “Google Maps” of the Earth’s crust, with a special focus on finding copper, cobalt, nickel and lithium deposits.
It collects and analyzes multiple streams of data — from old drilling results to satellite imagery — to better understand where new deposits might be found.
Algorithms applied to the data collected determine the geological patterns that indicate a potential deposit of cobalt, which occurs naturally alongside nickel and copper.
The technology, KoBold said, can locate resources that may have eluded more traditional geologists and can help miners decide where to acquire land and drill.
Goldman noted the company was considering going public in the next three or four years.
9 Comments
John
‘Discovery’ more like resource extension… Seems like Kobold is pushing its cause for a capital raising.
Brian
I personally think it’s stupid to concentrate on natural resources which are going nowhere anyway than to concentrate on on food production like agriculture etc coz I’ve lived in Zambia nearly all my life and I’ve never eaten copper or any other minerals and yet the country is still in debt, I think it’s about time to get rid of idiotic leadership and start doing things for ourselves. Let’s get back to our land and utilize it in a normal manner.
Martin Engelbrecht
Excellent comment.
Tony Innes
Natural resources is what will bring in the big $$$ to pay off debt, and develop the country, and pay for machinery to farm the land. I have never eaten a computer which I am typing a message on, but non agricultural work is what has paid for it. There is more money in Copper than agriculture.
Vincent kasanga
Your statement is worrying, economical does not grow in that way, we have debt to settle and to grow our economy and it depend on our resources that we have. I suggest go through your statement and reason.
Frank
Zambia like many more African countries have a problem of lack of knowhow on understanding times and seasons and knowing what to do. As a result they are always on the receiving end from people that have a cartel to ensure that no amount of brain development is attained lest they know what to do and stifle industries in western world.
I will never be excited about any discoveries in Zambia because they are meant to benefit the G8 and Paris Club members who hold African countries at ransom. This is another form of slavery in modern times. I wish those forcing a yoke of slavery on our countries could have a humane face to allow us to access just enough to live a descent life while they take away 60% percent of our resources for their use in their graves.
The current trend where our leadership seem to given personal benefits from country’s resources at the expense of the country is pathetic. But it is not their fault because the global market has determined our fate and their stay in offices means nothing other than fulfilling constitutional obligations.
One thing western countries and their allies should know is that Zambia like other African countries do not want too much development apart from food and potable drinking water to survive hunger and water borne diseases respectively. Any other thing live paved roads could just be a stepping stone to allow people move goods to and fro markets.
Their imposition of debt burden on us is inhumane and barbaric. If it is a way Bill Gates and his colleagues find worthwhile to apply on impoverished countries to facilitate the demise of African people meant to reduce global population is questionable. But one thing they should know that the population will reduce and no one will continue living because everyone is living in the world they know not where it came from.
If they believe that there is no God to whom they will answer then it will be logical to know that one day the revolution will turn things upside down. Their failure to have a grip on climate change is evidence enough to show that they shall not maintain the favourable environment for the survival. If I die today and the die 10 years later we are all corpses. As such they ought to be realistic not to take pleasure in the sufferings of Africans.
Do unto others that which you would want them to do unto you.
Abraham ilunga
Good New
Jonathan Malyo
I want to join this mining
Cecilia Jamasmie
You can check for jobs in the mining industry here: https://www.careermine.com/
Good luck!