Limeco Project

Limeco was initially established by Glencore plc due to the shortage of quicklime in Zambia and the need for quicklime at its Mopane operatons in Zambia. In total, over $US100m has been invested in establishing the limestone quarry and constructing the current lime plant. The lime plant consists of a two stage crushing circuit with an installed primary throughput of 500tph of limestone, and a quicklime production unit comprising eight kilns for burning crushed limestone to produce between 500 and 600 tonnes of quicklime per day.

In October 2017, Golder Associates visited Limeco and produced an in-situ mineral resource estimate of 73.7Mt @ 95.3% CaCO3 (Source: Golder Associates, report 1776596-002-R-Rev0, 05 October 2017).

First geological mapping and diamond drilling were completed in 2012 when 37 drill holes were drilled with an average depth of 66m for a total of 2,517m. This was followed by the development of a resource model in 2013. A further drilling programme (23 drillholes totalling 1,610m) was then completed southeast of the drilling done in 2012. This was followed in 2017 with an infill drilling programme comprising another 65 drillholes totalling 4,022m.

Limestone production from the quarry commenced in March 2016 and ceased in January 2017. Crushed limestone (-90mm +60mm) was fed to only two kilns during that Ime. The majority of the blasted limestone was stockpiled adjacent to the primary crusher and will serve as initial feedstock when the kilns are being commissioned.