RCS - Central Asia Metals - Kounrad celebrates 10-year production anniversary

Central Asia MetalsAnnouncement

03/05/2022 07:15

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20220503:nRSC9391Ja&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 9391J  Central Asia Metals PLC  03 May 2022

 

 

3 May 2022

 

CENTRAL ASIA METALS PLC

('CAML' or the 'Company')

Kounrad celebrates 10-year production anniversary

 

Central Asia Metals (AIM: CAML) is pleased to announce that, on 30 April 2022,
the Kounrad dump leach, solvent extraction and electro-winning
('SX-EW') copper recovery plant in Kazakhstan ('Kounrad') reached its 10-year
production milestone. CAML expects to produce copper at Kounrad until 2034.

Producing copper from waste since 2012

CAML's Kounrad copper resources are waste dumps that were formed during prior
mining activities of the Kounrad deposit, which commenced in the 1930s. Since
CAML's leaching operations began 10 years ago in April 2012, Kounrad has
achieved the following milestones:

·    127,165 tonnes of copper cathode have been produced (to 31 March
2022) at an average C1 cash cost of production that is very low by industry
standards at $0.55 per pound (2012 - 2021)

·    Gross revenue of $820.7 million has been generated from copper sales
(2012 - 2021)

·    Tax to the Government of Kazakhstan totalling $192.9 million has been
paid (2012 - 2021)

·    Operations have supported a Kazakh workforce comprising 323 employees
and 92 contractors (2021)

·    The establishment of the Kounrad Foundation charity in 2018

·    Development funding of over $2.3 million has been invested to support
the local communities of Kounrad and Balkhash (2012 - 2021)

 

Nigel Robinson, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"We are delighted to have reached another significant milestone at Kounrad. In
the 10 years since we began production at our Kazakhstan site, our first
producing operation, we have produced 127,165 tonnes of copper cathode.

"It is important to highlight that this volume of copper, a metal critical to
the green energy transition and urbanisation, has been recovered from what is
essentially a waste material at costs that have consistently been amongst the
lowest in the world.

"We look forward to the next 10 years at Kounrad, which will see our operation
continue to offer local employment and facilitate socio-economic progress in
the surrounding communities. In the near future, we hope to enhance our
operations by constructing a solar power plant at Kounrad and, having
completed a scoping study and received Board approval for building this
project last year, we are now in the process of detailed engineering design."

 

For further information contact:

 Central Asia Metals                               Tel: +44 (0) 20 7898 9001
 Nigel Robinson, CEO
 Gavin Ferrar, CFO
 Louise Wrathall, Director of Corporate Relations  louise.wrathall@centralasiametals.com

 Peel Hunt (Nominated Advisor and Joint Broker)    Tel: +44 (0) 20 7418 8900
 Ross Allister
 David McKeown

 BMO Capital Markets (Joint Broker)                Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236 1010
 Thomas Rider
 Pascal Lussier Duquette

 BlytheRay (PR Advisors)                           Tel: +44 (0) 20 7138 3204
 Tim Blythe
 Megan Ray
 Rachael Brooks

Note to editors:

 

Central Asia Metals, an AIM-listed UK company based in London, owns 100% of
the Kounrad SX-EW copper project in central Kazakhstan and 100% of the Sasa
zinc-lead mine in North Macedonia.

For further information, please visit www.centralasiametals.com
(http://www.centralasiametals.com/)  and follow CAML on Twitter at
@CamlMetals and on LinkedIn at Central Asia Metals Plc

 

 

This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

Reach is a non-regulatory news service. By using this service an issuer is confirming that the information contained within this announcement is of a non-regulatory nature. Reach announcements are identified with an orange label and the word “Reach” in the source column of the News Explorer pages of London Stock Exchange’s website so that they are distinguished from the RNS UK regulatory service. Other vendors subscribing for Reach press releases may use a different method to distinguish Reach announcements from UK regulatory news.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  NRAPPUUWCUPPGAB