Teal gears up for copper bonanza in Africa African Rainbow Minerals company putting cash from listings to good use in copper, cobalt, gold ventures Resources Editor TEAL Exploration & Mining, the 65%-held subsidiary of African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), is moving rapidly to start producing copper from interim mining on its Kalumines property in the Democratic Republic of Congo later this year, Teal president and CEO Rick Menell said last week.

In an interview on the sidelines of Mining Indaba, Menell said Teal was also working to complete a feasibility study on another copper project in Zambia by mid-year, at Konkola North's east/south limb.

The company's listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange in late 2005, which raised about $35m, and its subsequent secondary listing on the JSE last year, were aimed at raising funds to accelerate development of some of its mines in central Africa and Namibia. ARM's 65% stake was a major advantage to Teal because of ARM's status as the largest black-owned mining company operating outside SA, Menell said.

Teal's closest project to production is the Mwambashi copper project in Zambia, on which a feasibility study has proven the viability of the 12000 ton a year mine, but the project will not begin until an offtake agreement is secured. The Mwambashi project is too small to justify having its own concentrator, so it needs to sell production to another operator in the vicinity.

In the Congo, Teal has a 60/40 joint venture with Gecamines at Kalumines near Lubumbashi, close to the border of Zambia. This has a rich copper and cobalt deposit which is close to the surface. Menell said Teal had negotiated a deal with the artisanal miners on the property and they had all moved off, enabling the firm to move aggressively to drill and confirm the extent of the deposit.

Teal is recruiting about 400 people at Kalumines to start sorting the ore by hand and has bought a furnace in Johannesburg which is being reassembled on site.

Within six months the furnace should be working, and Kalumines should be able to start production at about 5000-6000 tons a year.

At Konkola North in Zambia, Teal took over a property formerly mined by Anglo American on the east/south limb of the ore body.

A feasibility study is under way into reopening the mine and an inspection of the shaft has shown it is in as good a condition as Teal could have hoped, Menell said, with no flooding or collapsing. It would take 18 months and cost about $70m to build a shaft like this from scratch, he said.

The old mine can produce 30000 tons a year but at the southeastern end of the property is an extension of the ore body, which could potentially produce 100000 tons a year.

Menell said Teal's target was to be a 70000-80000-tons copper producer a year by 2010. This excluded the possibilities of mining from the extension area at Konkola North.

In Namibia, Teal is drilling what appears to be a substantial gold deposit at Otjikoto. It has initially shown grades of about 1,2g a ton but these are increasing to the south, up to 4g-8g a ton. By June Teal hopes to have defined sufficient gold at the site to show that a 150000oz a year gold mine would be viable.